NorthX Invests $2.2M into Three Local Startups Innovating Wildfire Technology

NorthX Climate Tech is investing $2.2 million in three British Columbian companies, the organization announced this week.

NorthX says its $2.2M of follow-on capital is earmarked for CRWN.ai, Nova, and Skyward Wildfire Technologies.

Wildfire risk “is no longer seasonal,” posits NorthX chief executive officer Sarah Goodman. “It’s structural.”

CRWN.ai, Nova, and Skyward Wildfire Technologies are each innovating their own iteration of field-tested technologies to detect, prevent, or manage wildfires.

“What sets these companies apart is that they’re already delivering results in the field, with technologies being validated in real-world conditions with utilities and frontline teams,” says Goodman.

“This is exactly where we double down,” she continued, “backing proven solutions and scaling them quickly so communities have the tools to prevent fires from becoming disasters.”

The investments, which build on prior funding from NorthX’s 2024 Call for Innovation: Wildfire Tech, aim to accelerate the scale-up of these solutions.

Kelowna’s CRWN.ai, launched in 2022, develops early warning technology that detects electrical problems on power lines before they spark wildfires, with NorthX funding slated to support the deployment of up to 500 monitoring devices across BC transmission corridors.

Nova, meanwhile, delivers AI-powered wildfire intelligence, turning aerial data into live insights to help crews detect hotspots and track fire perimeters. NorthX’s investment will advance Nova’s expansion from drone-only integration to a multi-platform system unifying data across aircraft and satellites for large-scale provincial and federal operations.

Founded in 2024, Skyward Wildfire Technologies addresses a natural cause of wildfires in Canada: lightning.

“Lightning-caused wildfires are one of the most costly and difficult risks for governments and infrastructure operators to manage,” CEO Sam Goldman stated this year.

The B.C. firm’s prevention technology is designed to reduce lightning-caused ignitions before they occur. NorthX’s funding is targeted to accelerate deployment of a globally scalable system leveraging modular hardware automation.

Earlier this year, Skyward secured $7.9 million in a seed round from Climate Innovation Capital, Diagram Ventures, and Active Impact Investments among others.

Since launching in 2021, NorthX has invested more than $50 million across over 80 projects, creating more than 800 jobs and catalyzing over $600 million in follow-on investment.