Local startups join Google AI program to protect the environment

If you weren’t already feeling some amount of existential dread about the climate crisis, get ready. From eroding coastlines to shrinking icepacks, the impacts of climate change are being felt everywhere — and companies and the economies in which they operate are not immune. According to PwC, over half of global GDP “is moderately or highly dependent on nature.”

Around the world, companies large and small are working to address the climate crisis and mitigate its impacts — including one of the world’s biggest. In addition to its own products, Google is running the Google for Startups Accelerator: AI for Nature. The 10-week program is similar to the other Google Accelerator programs, which provide mentorship, access to Google experts and technology, and the opportunity to join an alumni network. But this time, the companies are working to solve environmental challenges using artificial intelligence.

The program’s first cohort, announced this week, includes two Lower Mainland companies: OnDeck and SenseNet.

Based in Vancouver, OnDeck uses AI in its electronic monitoring solutions, designed for fisheries management and conservation. Without having previously labelled the footage, users are able to search across videos and images, below and above water. The company was founded in 2022 and is led by co-founders Alexander Dungate and Sepand Dyanatkar, CEO and CTO, respectively.

Last year, OnDeck received $1.5 million in funding to scale up and modernize electronic monitoring through Canada’s Ocean Supercluster as part of its AI for Scalable Fisheries Monitoring Project. The startup also counts Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Ocean Wise, National Geographic, Creative Destruction Lab, and others amongst its supporters.

Thirty-minutes down the road and just off Highway 1 is fellow program participant SenseNet. The North Vancouver company provides wildfire detection solutions for private enterprises, local communities, and public authorities. SenseNet offers a gas sensor to detect wildfires before smoke or flames are visible, a smoke detection camera that uses AI to read daytime and nighttime images, and a platform to manage it all (and more).

Last month, SenseNet announced a partnership with the Village of Harrison Hot Springs, which includes the installation of 120 ground sensors, five gateways, and five cameras situated throughout the village’s East Sector Lands and on its western forested side beneath BC Hydro lines. Abroad, SenseNet is working with Brazilian telecommunications infrastructure supplier iez! Telecom to protect large areas of vegetation throughout Brazil.

The two local companies are amongst a group of 15, including fellow Canadian startup Xatoms, that will get down to work this month. The graduates will celebrate with a demo day in August.