Startup Rhizome gets into the wildfire prevention game

Rhizome, a climate resilience planning platform for the power grid, is making its debut in the wildfire mitigation space. 

• The top line: The artificial intelligence-powered software platform Rhizome announced today the launch of gridFIRM, alongside a $1 million investment from venture capital firm Convective Capital. The “FIRM” in the tool’s name stands for Fire Ignition Reduction and Mitigation, and it is designed to help utilities limit their wildfire risks.
• The nuts and bolts: The gridFIRM tool is available to utilities in Australia, Canada, and the United States. It uses machine learning to process geographic and historical datasets about utilities’ assets — and to determine their likelihood of sparking a wildfire. Additionally, utilities can use the tool to determine whether mitigation techniques such as insulating bare conductors or undergrounding are the safest or most effective for a specific asset. 
• The market grounding: In recent months, using AI for wildfire mitigation and response has been gaining traction. Convective Capital itself is a $35 million venture capital fund solely dedicated to funding solutions to wildfires, which Bill Clerico, its founder, describes as an “existential risk” for U.S. utilities. They cause “bankruptcies, fines, and regulatory actions and [have cost] the industry over $100 billion in the last 10 years,” he said.

Dedicated startups that have announced money raises recently include Dryad Networks, which embeds AI into solar-powered sensors to detect fires as soon as possible, and AiDash, which offers AI-backed vegetation management and provides maintenance recommendations to utilities, among others. 

Mishal Thadani, Rhizome’s CEO and co-founder, told Latitude Media that gridFIRM differentiates itself from other tools in the market through its focus on prevention rather than detection, relying on Rhizome’s ability to forecast the impacts of extreme weather events on utility infrastructure and their likelihood of failure in the long-term — and optimize grid investments accordingly.

“The major gap in the market is truly understanding the cause of wildfires by utility assets, and how to quench a wildfire even before it starts,” he said. “We're building on this platform to understand how…utility asset failure might result in a wildfire, often referred to as the likelihood of wildfire ignition.” 

Rhizome raised $2.5 million in pre-seed capital in October 2023 and it has partnerships with utilities such as Seattle City Light and Vermont Electric Power Company. To build its wildfire prevention tool, it relied on data provided by customers in the Northeast, Pacific Northwest, and Texas. 

Convective Capital’s investment in the startup comes independent of any specific funding round. 

“While strategic in nature, this investment doesn't technically fall under an ‘extension’, ‘bridge’, or ‘strategic’ categories,” Thadani said. “It was simply the right opportunity at the right time to help us scale the product across the market in anticipation of a Series A further down the line.”