Kodama raises $7M to expand supervised-autonomy forestry equipment
The forestry robotics company will expand equipment deployments and manufacturer integrations after reporting 100,000 tons of timber moved in six months.
Kodama has raised $7 million in financing co-led by Konvoy Ventures and Breakwater Ventures, bringing total funding to $14 million. Announced on 19 October, the investment will support additional commercial deployments, deeper equipment-manufacturer partnerships and development of autonomy for off-road forestry operations.
The company combines supervised autonomy with teleoperation on forestry machinery. Equipped machines handle repeatable work while experienced operators remotely manage complex tasks and edge cases. Kodama’s approach allows contractors to add remote operation and autonomy to existing fleets, with hardware, software and safety systems developed for remote jobsites and changing terrain.
Kodama says its technology is operating in commercial logging across the southeastern United States. Over the previous six months, equipped machines moved more than 100,000 tons of timber across multiple states. These deployments generate operating data and feedback from crews that feed into subsequent development of the system.
Equipment utilisation is a central commercial problem for the company’s customers: logging contractors depend on skilled operators, and an unstaffed machine can interrupt the wider operation. CEO and co-founder Merritt Jenkins describes remote supervision as the starting point for progressively more autonomous equipment. Kodama has integrated its technology with forestry-equipment manufacturers and plans to extend support to additional machine platforms.
The financing also included Blue Forest Asset Management, NYA Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Congruent Ventures, Dangerous Ventures and M1C. The new capital funds both field expansion and the engineering needed to support more equipment types within the existing forestry supply chain.