State forestry company Coillte has signed a €1m contract with Cork-based Treemetrics to create a real-time satellite communications and data analytics platform to help it manage forestry harvesting.
The Treemetrics technology platform, a first for forestry, is designed to optimise operational efficiency, reduce waste and improve environmental sustainability. The company developed the technology in partnership with the European Space Agency over the past four years.
The platform communicates directly with harvest cutting machines, delivering positioning and mapping services to the driver-operators as well as sharing data about the tree-logs in real time with forest managers and sawmill wood buyers.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Coillte chief executive Fergal Leamy and Treemetrics co-founder and CEO Enda Keane announced the agreement in government uildings today.
“After a chance meeting on a Dublin street some years ago, I have followed with interest the Treemetrics story of success," said Kenny. "Now as then I am happy to support them as their visions mature into pioneering solutions for the forestry sector. SMEs like Treemetrics are the backbone of our economy and are an example to everyone who has an idea to follow it through as best they can.
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“I am particularly delighted that Treemetrics, working in partnership with the European Space Agency, have pioneered this innovative satellite communications and data analytics platform. The platform promises to optimise forestry management efficiency and create a more sustainable environment for future generations.”
Advised by law firm McGuire Desmond, Treemetrics Ltd has raised €800,000 from private investors using the BES and EII schemes since 2011. The company finally secured Enterprise Ireland funding of €200,000 in April 2016.
The company’s latest filed accounts are for 2014, when Treemetrics booked a net profit of €155,000. This surplus reduced accumulated losses since inception to €1.7 million. With additional capital raised through 2014, the deficit in shareholders’ funds improved to €150,000 from €608,000 the year before.
Treemetrics boss Enda Keane commented: “Treemetrics are very grateful for the support we received from the European Space Agency and Coillte to enable us to deliver the ‘Internet of Trees’ platform, providing real time data analytics and transformative insights, that will deliver great benefits to the Irish forestry industry, in terms of environmental sustainability, management optimisation and improved profitability.”
Coillte's Fergal Leamy claimed that Coillte is on a path to becoming the best forestry and land solutions company in Europe. "Our increasing use of technology will be crucial over the next few years as we aim to create the connected forest," he said. "I am delighted to be working with world leading technology companies like Treemetrics as we develop innovative solutions to how we manage our forests.”
Photo (l-r): Fergal Leamy, Enda Kenny and Enda Keane. (Pix: Julian Behal)
