Namu provides autonomous drones that collect environmental DNA samples from air, water, and surfaces across large, hard‑to‑access areas. The samples are sequenced and analyzed with AI to deliver species‑level presence reports and early‑warning alerts via a secure web portal or API, enabling growers and forest managers to act on pest and biodiversity data at scale.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Large-scale pest and biodiversity monitoring requires manual sampling in remote or vertically complex habitats, which is time‑consuming, costly, and often yields data too late to inform proactive management decisions.
Solution
Namu deploys autonomous drones equipped with environmental DNA (eDNA) collection modules to sample air, water, or surface residues across hectares of forest canopy, vineyards, fields, rivers and lakes. The drones follow pre‑programmed GPS waypoints, capture genetic material, and preserve samples for downstream high‑throughput sequencing. A cloud‑based bioinformatics pipeline applies DNA‑based species detection and machine‑learning classification to generate species‑level presence reports and early‑warning alerts for invasive pests. Clients receive the results through a secure web portal or via API integration with existing farm‑management or forest‑monitoring systems, enabling rapid, data‑driven mitigation actions at scale.
Target Audience
Primary customers are commercial growers, forestry operators, and environmental consultancy firms that need frequent, high‑resolution biodiversity and pest intelligence across extensive or hard‑to‑access landscapes.
Features
- Fully autonomous UAV with precision waypoint navigation and obstacle avoidance for safe operation in dense canopy or steep terrain
- Integrated eDNA sampler (air‑filter and water‑intake) with on‑board sample preservation to maintain nucleic‑acid integrity during flight
- High‑throughput sequencing workflow coupled with AI‑enhanced taxonomic classification for detection of >10,000 species per campaign
- Real‑time telemetry and encrypted data upload to a cloud analytics platform, supporting near‑instant result availability
- RESTful API and FHIR‑compatible endpoints for seamless integration with agronomic decision‑support tools and GIS dashboards
- Automated alert engine that flags threshold exceedances for invasive pest species and generates actionable recommendations
- Scalable SaaS architecture allowing multi‑site monitoring with centralized fleet management and usage analytics