OmniGeo Joins the NSF ASCEND ARID Accelerator

We’re excited to announce that OmniGeo has accepted an invitation to join the 2026–2027 cohort of the Innosphere NSF ASCEND ARID Accelerator, a program built around wildfire preparedness, response, and recovery for the power systems, water systems, and insurance markets across the Mountain West. We are thrilled to be building alongside eight of the leading wildfire technology companies in the U.S.

Wildfire is becoming a critical problem to solve across the Mountain West. Tens of billions of dollars of wildfire losses are occurring annually (a staggering $140B in total losses from the LA fires alone), while homes are being destroyed and lives are at stake. While the catastrophe modeling and hazard layers of risk assessment get the lion’s share of attention, states are focusing their efforts on hardening the built environment and investing in mitigation. Nearly two dozen states are following California and Colorado’s lead in pushing the insurance ecosystem to accept and price mitigation actions.

But measuring building-level vulnerability is not only hard, but it’s also nigh impossible with today’s technologies. Aerial imagery can only be captured every so often, while pixel-based computer vision cannot determine what a building is actually made of or vegetation’s real-time flammability. That’s what OmniGeo can solve with its unique approach. OmniGeo’s spectral intelligence reconstructs spectral bands from any kind of imagery, including satellite, aerial, drone, or ground-based photography.

Wildfire is one of the initial areas we believe we can make an immediate impact. OmniFire, our property-level wildfire risk API, converts satellite and aerial imagery into parcel-level signals, including roof material, defensible space, fuel density, vegetation moisture and condition.

Wildfire is also our proof point for something bigger. OmniGeo’s spectral science measures what the physical world is actually made of, not just what it looks like. The same physics-based engine extends to forestry, crop health, and structural condition across the built environment. Wildfire is the peril where the need, the data, and the regulation are coming together right now.

We’re working with Innosphere and the NSF ASCEND Engine team to put OmniFire to work at real test sites in and around Boulder and Denver, alongside CU Boulder’s Earth Lab, the Colorado Division of Insurance, the Colorado State Forest Service, and Xcel Energy. These are the institutions closest to wildfire risk, regulation, and grid resilience in our home region.

We’re grateful to Innosphere, the National Science Foundation, and the ASCEND Engine for the vote of confidence, and glad to be growing alongside the rest of the ARID cohort.

OmniGeo is a venture-backed spectral AI company based in Boulder, Colorado, turning ordinary satellite and aerial imagery into physics-based, parcel-level risk signals. Learn more at omnigeo.ai.