SenseNet nets $1M investment

SenseNet, a Vancouver-based IoT firm that focuses on early wildfire detection, has netted $1 million in funding.

Wildfires have become a distinct part of the British Columbian experience, and climate change means it will stay that way. SenseNet’s product helps solve this global challenge by keeping communities protected from the damaging effects of wildfires through hardware and software solutions that tap into AI and the cloud.

SenseNet is buoyed by local connections. The company is the initial graduate of the TiE Incubation Lab, the outfit helmed by Maninder Dhaliwal which acts as the incubator arm of the not-for-profit angel investor forum.

When a venture is accepted by TiE Incubation Lab, the organization will work with them for six months, “to make them what I would call ‘more fundable,’” Dhaliwal told us earlier this year. “They all get three advisors and mentors, and one of them we're picking from the U.S., from our TIE network.“

After that, TiE Vancouver invests in the startup, alongside any interested TiE members from its global network. “So we're investing in them as if we were any other investor,” Dhaliwal says.

“TiE was very helpful in providing strategic advice on go to market, product market fit and effective communication with investors,” said SenseNet founder Hamed Noori. “Their experts have a lot of experience in funding, fundraising, and building companies and were able to act as a sounding board.”

As well as its local connection to TiE Vancouver, SenseNet has benefitted from provincial and national funding. The company’s work in the Okanagan put it on the radar of Innovate BC and NRC-IRAP, which awarded the company a part of their $2 million share of BC Fast funding earlier this year.