Overstory

Overstory, which also operates under the 20tree.ai name and domain, builds a vegetation intelligence and grid resilience platform for electricity utilities. The company applies machine learning to high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery to map vegetation near power lines and identify individual trees, poles and assets that pose risk, then layers that output with local context such as asset locations, wildfire maps and terrain. The resulting analytics are used by utilities to prioritize trimming and mitigation work, shift from cycle-based to risk-based vegetation management, and forecast reliability effects such as SAIDI impact.

The product line comprises a core Vegetation Intelligence offering and a Wildfire Intelligence module. In November 2025 Overstory released the next generation of Wildfire Intelligence, built on a proprietary Fuel Detection Model that identifies where across a network the highest-risk fuels sit and where a spark is most likely to ignite and spread, with recommendations on specific locations and actions rather than the broad public fire-risk maps utilities commonly use. Earlier work under the 20tree.ai brand extended beyond utilities to monitoring natural resources from satellite data, including a forest health monitoring dashboard.

The company positions vegetation management as typically a utility's largest operations budget item and one of the least served by advanced analytics, citing rising costs (vegetation management growing from 50% of overhead maintenance budgets in 2015 to 75% in 2020), workforce attrition (54.4% of vegetation management workers voluntarily leaving positions over five years) and a 78% increase in weather-related outages over ten years.

Founding story

The company was founded in 2018 in Lisbon by Indra den Bakker and Anniek Schouten, with Roelof Pieters also listed among founders. It initially operated as 20tree.ai, building technology to monitor the Earth's natural resources at scale using machine learning applied to satellite imagery.

Business model

Overstory sells software and data deliverables to electric utilities on a business-to-business basis, delivering vegetation and wildfire risk analytics derived from satellite and aerial imagery into utility vegetation management workflows.

Enterprise software and data sales to investor-owned utilities and electric cooperatives; customers evaluate the platform through pilots before broader deployment.

Traction

Headcount exceeded 80 people spanning 16 nationalities as of November 2025, across machine learning, data science, arboriculture and wildfire expertise. The company reports serving six of the ten largest utilities in the Americas and 50+ utilities and cooperatives overall; its deliverables were validated across Spain and applied to 10,000 miles of powerline for Red Eléctrica Group. Cumulative disclosed funding includes a $14M Series A in 2023 and a $43M Series B in 2025, and the company was advertising roughly a dozen open roles.

Latest developments

In November 2025 Overstory closed a $43M Series B led by Blume Equity with Energy Impact Partners and existing investors participating, to be used for AI-based risk models, its wildfire prevention offering and global expansion. Alongside the raise it launched the next generation of Wildfire Intelligence powered by its Fuel Detection Model and appointed former Eventbrite CMO Tamara Mendelsohn as Chief Operating Officer. The company continues to recruit across machine learning, product, engineering and enterprise sales, including a Chief Technology Officer search.