Treeswift

About Treeswift

Treeswift is a Philadelphia-based startup founded in 2020 as a spin-off from the University of Pennsylvanias GRASP Laboratory, using swarms of autonomous flying robots equipped with LiDAR sensors to monitor, inventory, and map timberland at unprecedented speed and scale. Founded by Steven Chen, Elizabeth Hunter, Michael Shomin, and Vaibhav Arcot who combined expertise in drone swarms and forestry, the company has raised $6.4 million in total funding including a $4.8 million seed round led by Pathbreaker Ventures with participation from Crosslink Capital, TenOneTen Ventures, Contour Venture Partners, Susa Ventures, and others. Their SwiftCruise platform claims to be 10 times faster than traditional data collection methods where timber cruisers manually gather measurements. The drones collect images and render them into 3D maps analyzed for precise quantifiable measurements of forest biomass. Treeswift focuses on three main applications: calculating timber inventory, mapping forests for preservation, and measuring forest biomass and fuel to prevent wildfire spread. Additional use cases include carbon capture estimation, timber value appraisals, fire mitigation, biomass understory analysis, deforestation monitoring, and advanced growth forecasting. Chen received a National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research grant in December 2019 to conduct R&D on flying robot systems. Now with approximately 30 employees based at Pennovation Center, Treeswift continues working closely with Penn researchers while operating across forest sites nationwide.

Key Products & Services

SwiftCruise LiDAR Drone System, Forest Monitoring Drones

Industry Sectors