Dendra Systems

Dendra Systems was an environmental restoration technology company headquartered in London that combined drone-based aerial surveying, AI analytics and aerial seeding to support large-scale ecosystem restoration. Its principal product, RestorationOS, scanned and analysed land to produce restoration plans for governments, infrastructure developers and operators of sites such as former mines. The platform processed high-resolution imagery to identify and map species at square-metre resolution, supporting plant management, monitoring, documentation and environmental reporting.

Alongside the analytics platform, the company supplied and operated seed-planting drones — described by its founder as a "sky tractor" — aimed at remote and difficult terrain that is steep, rugged and hard to access on foot. The company positioned its approach as accelerating natural regeneration by placing specific seed mixes in targeted locations, and described its offering as full-stack ecosystem management spanning ultra-high-resolution monitoring, detailed environmental reporting and aerial seeding. It stated its technology was particularly effective in mining infrastructure, mangrove and arid ecosystem restoration.

Dendra Systems Limited entered administration in September 2025; joint administrators from FRP Advisory were appointed, and the administration was reported in early October 2025.

Founding story

Dendra Systems was founded in 2014 by Dr Susan Graham, who set out to address environmental degradation at scale, citing roughly 2 billion hectares of degraded land globally and elevated species extinction rates. Graham, an Australian engineer who completed a PhD at Oxford, sought to combine large-scale environmental impact with drone and AI technology, later leading the company as CEO from London.

Business model

Dendra sold ecosystem monitoring and restoration services to organisations in mature, regulated industries that are already required or committed to restore native ecosystems, offering an end-to-end service from data capture and analytics through to aerial seeding and environmental reporting.

The RestorationOS analytics platform, used to scan and analyse land and develop restoration plans, accounted for the bulk of the company's revenue; the company also provided and operated seed-planting drones as a service.

Traction

Reported over 50,000 hectares of land under management on the Dendra Platform and work with 30+ leading mining operators across Australia; customers included Rio Tinto and Glencore.

Latest developments

After announcing a $15.76 million Series B in May 2024 led by Zouk Capital, Dendra Systems Limited entered administration in September 2025, with Philip Armstrong and Geoffrey Rowley of FRP Advisory appointed as joint administrators.