Forestry software firm aiming for contract with multinational logger

John Mulligan Twitter Email

November 27 2013 08:49 PM

CORK-BASED forestry-software firm Treemetrics is hoping to secure a major contract in South America with a multinational logging firm as it nears completion of a €1m fundraising round that will help it expand its sales force.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Treemetrics CEO and co-founder Enda Keane said that the multinational company, which he declined to name, cuts about four million tonnes of wood a year in the area of southern Brazil and northern Uruguay where the Cork company's solution may be deployed.

That's more than the amount of wood cut every year in Irish forests. The targeted area in South America comprises dedicated tree plantations.

Striking a deal with the client, with which Treemetrics has already worked to prove its technology, would be a major coup and would come on top of other contracts the company has recently signed in Sweden and Canada.

PLANTATIONS

Treemetrics has developed a software system that integrates land-based 3D laser scanning of forests with satellite imagery to optimise felling. That generates higher yields and reduces waste in what is a multibillion-euro market. The company was founded nine years ago by Mr Keane and Garret Mullooly.

Mr Keane said that Treemetrics was now working with Sweden's Vida, a global supplier of timber to the construction trade. Vida sources wood from about 94,000 farmers in Sweden. Treemetrics solution will be deployed in a small number of forests initially, but the expectation is that in the long-term it will be used across the entire supplier base.

In Canada, Treemetrics is working with a major sawmill firm based in British Columbia. Its system has also been tested in a number of other countries, including Australia and New Zealand.

The company also has a deal with the European Space Agency to monitor forests all over the world.

Treemetrics will shortly complete a €1m fundraising.

"We believe we can become a major, long-lasting company," said Mr Keane. He expects the firm's workforce of 15 to double over the next year, particularly as it hires international sales personnel.