Satellites On Fire

Satellites on Fire is an Argentine climate-technology company that operates a wildfire and deforestation early-alert and analytics platform. The system aggregates imagery from more than eight satellites operated by NASA, NOAA and the European Space Agency, updated as frequently as every five minutes, and combines it with tower-mounted cameras, weather forecasts and proprietary AI models to identify heat signatures, model fire spread and issue alerts. Alerts are delivered through channels including WhatsApp, email and SMS, and the platform is accessible at app.satellitesonfire.com without specialized equipment on the customer side.

The company states that its detection consistently precedes alerts from NASA's FIRMS service by an average of about 35 minutes, and that it identifies roughly 30% more fires than NASA's system. Draper Cygnus describes a maximum detection delay of 10 minutes. Newsweek reported in November 2025 a documented Argentine case in which the platform detected a fire at 1:40 a.m., seven hours ahead of the NASA alert. Beyond detection, the platform analyzes historical data and current weather to anticipate risk and optimize sensor placement, and the company has announced plans for a parametric wildfire insurance product and a client-facing intelligence dashboard for protection planning. Leadership has said the company intends to eventually move into fire suppression technology using drones.

Founding story

The company was founded in 2020 by Franco Rodriguez Viau, Ulises López Pacholczak and Joaquín Chamo, then secondary school students at ORT Buenos Aires, after family friends of Rodriguez Viau lost their homes to wildfires in Córdoba. What began as a school project was rebuilt from scratch after the founders interviewed more than 80 firefighters and emergency responders and concluded that their first version was not operationally useful. Rodriguez Viau, aged 22 at the time of the 2026 seed announcement, serves as CEO; López Pacholczak is described as CTO (also referred to as Co-founder and Head of Innovations) and Chamo as CPO.

Business model

Business-to-business SaaS. The company sells subscription access to its wildfire detection, alerting and analytics platform to enterprises, insurers and government agencies; LatamList describes a freemium model with more than 55,000 active users. Aon has integrated the platform into its forestry insurance policies across Latin America for risk calculation and premium pricing, and the company plans a parametric wildfire insurance product with Aon.

Software-as-a-service pricing ranging from $0.02 to $10 per hectare annually depending on service tier, alongside a freemium tier for users.

Traction

The platform monitors territory across 21 countries on four continents, reports more than 55,000 users, and maintains a training dataset of over 20,000 field-validated fire reports. In 2025 the system was involved in the response to more than 600 wildfires, according to the company. Aon has integrated the platform across its Latin American forestry insurance policies, and the company is running pilots in the United States.

Latest developments

In April 2026 the company closed a $2.7 million seed round led by Dalus Capital with participation from Draper Associates, Draper Cygnus, VitaminC, Savia Ventures, Avesta Fund, Reciprocal, Zenani Capital, Innventure, Air Capital, Gain VC, Antom VC and Embarca Tech. Stated uses of proceeds include expansion into the United States market, optimization of its AI models, launch of a parametric wildfire insurance product with Aon, and development of an intelligence dashboard for client protection planning; LatamList additionally reports planned expansion into Mexico and Europe.