Flash Forest secures Series A financing from TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good and OurCrowd, leading global reforestation efforts using drone technology

MISSISSAUGA, ON -- Today, Flash Forest, a Canadian reforestation company that uses drones and technology to regenerate post-wildfire areas that are deemed too unsafe for human tree planters, announced the completion of an $11.4 million (CAD) Series A financing round. Climate change is accelerating the frequency and severity of wildfires and we are quickly losing one of our best mechanisms for combating it: trees. Earth loses an average of 26 million hectares of trees every single year. That’s an area roughly the size of Mexico, lost annually. Over 30 per cent of this loss can be attributed to wildfires. This new investment, co-led by the TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good and OurCrowd, will support the development and expansion of Flash Forest’s rapid post-wildfire reforestation solution through North America in the fight against climate change. 

Despite the growing need for reforestation, tree planting is still largely executed by hand and shovel, a method that is laborious, difficult, and faces challenges in terrain with limited accessibility. This investment will contribute to automate the resource-intensive practice by planting trees three times cheaper and five times faster than conventional hand and shovel methods while also being able to service wildfire impacted areas that can not be easily addressed by conventional methods.

“With this investment by the TELUS Pollinator Fund, Flash Forest is partnering with a significant social impact fund, that doesn’t simply act with a profit-first mindset like many VCs, but clearly identifies with and supports our mission of 1B trees and beyond to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss. This makes a difference, especially in challenging times, where our clear alignment on the execution of the mission comes before all else,” said Bryce Jones, Flash Forest’s CEO and co-founder. “In addition to TELUS’ environmental leadership and steadfast commitment to becoming a zero waste and net carbon neutral company by 2030, there’s enormous internal resources and support that make this an extremely exciting and mutual partnership. We’re ready to dive in and can’t wait to see what the future holds.”

Multi-year commercial agreement to accelerate reforestation

Flash Forest has also entered into a multi-year commercial agreement with the TELUS Sustainability & Environment team to provide drone planted trees for their customers. Through this partnership, TELUS will offer Flash Forest’s technology to help businesses from various industries achieve their own environmental goals with end-to-end digital forestry solutions, leveraging TELUS world-leading networks and remote connectivity technologies.  

“Climate change is one of the world’s most critical challenges, and more frequent, severe wildfires are a symptom of an overheating planet,” said Blair Miller, Managing Partner, TELUS Pollinator Fund. “By investing in Flash Forest, we can efficiently and safely increase reforestation after wildfires. It’s a perfect fit with the TELUS Pollinator Fund, as we are uniquely positioned to unlock the capabilities of TELUS to further scale sustainable solutions that address some of the world’s most pressing social challenges.”

“The world has lost over 1 trillion trees in the last 100 years and wildfires have been taking a growing part in that. We are excited to join forces with Flash Forest on their mission and to co-lead this round with the TELUS Pollinator Fund supporting rapid post-wildfire reforestation that is so needed to fight climate change,” said Liat Sverdlov, Investment Partner at OurCrowd.