Wild Me

What Wild Me does

Wild Me is a non-profit conservation technology organization operating as a program of Conservation X Labs, headquartered in Washington, D.C. and originally founded in 2002. The organization builds open-source software and artificial intelligence for the wildlife conservation research community, serving conservation scientists, NGOs, citizen scientists, and government agencies (including NOAA). Its core functional purpose is enabling rapid animal population assessment and long-term individual animal tracking to support biodiversity monitoring.

The product portfolio centers on two platforms: Wildbook, a web-based, multi-user collaborative platform that uses computer vision to identify individual animals from photographs across 53+ species, and Scout, an image annotation and processing platform for cleaning large image sets. Supporting tools include Fin Finder for marine species, the Codex platform architecture (currently replacing legacy Wildbook installations such as Zebra Codex), and species-specific installations including Flukebook (cetaceans), Sharkbook (sharks), MantaMatcher (manta rays), GiraffeSpotter (giraffes), and SeadragonSearch. The underlying technology comprises seven proprietary ID algorithms tailored to species-specific visual patterns, applied to image and video inputs via bulk upload and account-based web access.

Wild Me monetizes through donations, grants, and corporate and foundation sponsorships rather than commercial pricing. Featured sponsors include the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Microsoft (via AI for Earth and Microsoft for Startups), H2O.ai, NVIDIA (via Inception Incubator and hardware donations), and the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. The organization distributes its platforms as free, self-serve, web-based tools to researchers globally, relying on community-led adoption, documentation portals, GitHub contributions, conferences, and partnerships with conservation organizations as its go-to-market channels.

Name

Wild Me

Legal name

Conservation X Labs

Website

https://wildme.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2002

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Wild Me, a non-profit program of Conservation X Labs, builds open-source computer vision and AI platforms (Wildbook, Scout, Codex) for wildlife conservation researchers to identify and track individual animals across 53+ species globally.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Conservation Technology Software

akta.pro primary industry

Wildlife Conservation & Species Protection (BPAGAGAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Wildlife Surveys & Movement/Connectivity Studies (e.g., Avian/Bat, Telemetry) (EUAHAHAH)

Keywords

• Wildlife conservation software
• AI species identification
• Photo identification platform
• Population monitoring tools
• Conservation research software

Headquarters

HQ city

Oregon

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Donations and Grants: Wild Me is a non-profit organization operated by Conservation X Labs. Revenue is generated through donations, grants, and sponsorships from foundations and organizations supporting conservation technology.
2. Sponsorship Programs: Corporate and foundation sponsors provide financial support. Featured sponsors include Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, H2O.ai, Microsoft, and NVIDIA.
3. Partnerships and Grants: Partnerships, sponsorships, and grants are actively sought from organizations interested in developing conservation technology collaborations.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Wild Me builds open-source software platforms powered by machine learning and computer vision to enable conservation researchers to track individual animals, identify species from photographs, and estimate wildlife population sizes. Its flagship platforms, Wildbook and Scout, process large image sets, automate species detection and matching across images, and support collaborative multi-regional research across more than 53 species.

Product overview

Wild Me (by Conservation X Labs) is a non-profit that builds open software and AI for the conservation research community. The product portfolio centers on two core platforms — Wildbook (web-based collaborative animal tracking and population estimation via computer vision) and Scout (image processing and annotation for rapid species analysis) — supported by specialized tools including Fin Finder for marine species, Codex (next-gen platform architecture), and species-specific installations like Sharkbook, Flukebook, MantaMatcher, and GiraffeSpotter. AddOns extend platform functionality, while Services provides professional ID algorithm support. All products use open source code with 12 years of development, supporting 53+ species monitored through automated identification and 74+ peer-reviewed publications.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Wildbook: A web-based, multi-user software platform to help researchers collaboratively track individual animals in wildlife populations and estimate population sizes.
• Scout
• Fin Finder

Products and services

• Wildbook A web-based, multi-user software platform that enables conservation researchers to collaboratively track individual animals in wildlife populations and estimate population sizes using computer vision and machine learning. Supports multiple species per installation with image analysis pipelines for detection, annotation, and matching across more than 53 species.
• Scout An image processing platform for cleaning up large image sets, annotating images automatically and manually, and collaborating in local teams. Supports species counting, land usage analysis, and human-animal interaction detection.
• Fin Finder Specialized tool within the Wildbook ecosystem for marine species identification, focused on whale shark and cetacean photo identification through pattern matching of fins and flukes.
• Codex Next-generation platform architecture built on Wildbook principles with an updated interface, replacing species-specific Wildbooks (e.g., Zebra Codex) for multi-species research programs.
• Species-Specific Wildbook Installations Species-specific Wildbook installations tailored for targeted taxonomic research, including Sharkbook (sharks), Flukebook (cetaceans), MantaMatcher (manta rays), GiraffeSpotter (giraffes), SeadragonSearch (seadragons), and SealCodex.
• Wild Me Services Professional services delivering seven specialized ID algorithms and tailored matching techniques for unique species characteristics, supporting conservation research workflows.

Quantifiable outcome

• 53 species monitored by automated identification
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability3 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered featured partner, core and minor.

• Marine Megafauna Foundationfeatured partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnered with Wild Me to create MantaMatcher, the Wildbook for mantas and other rays.
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)featured partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerNOAA partners with Wild Me to improve Flukebook for cetacean photo identification.
• Giraffe Conservation Foundationfeatured partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnered with Wild Me to create GiraffeSpotter.org, the Wildbook for Giraffe.
• SeadragonSearchfeatured partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnered with Wild Me to create SeadragonSearch.org, the Wildbook for Seadragons.
• Lincoln Park Zoo Urban Wildlife Information Network (UWIN)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWild Me partnered with UWIN to receive a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Theodore Roosevelt Genius Grant prize for urban wildlife monitoring.
• LokaliseminorOthersProvides localization services as operational support to Wild Me.
• TransloaditminorOthersProvides file upload services as operational support to Wild Me.
• FlatfileminorOthersProvides data import services as operational support to Wild Me.
• AlgoliaminorOthersProvides search functionality services as operational support to Wild Me.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Zooniverse: Largest citizen-science platform, used by conservation and astronomy researchers to crowdsource image classification. Overlaps with Wild Me in crowd-driven wildlife/conservation data workflows and AI-assisted annotation.
• iNaturalist: Joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and National Geographic Society that combines citizen-science wildlife observations with computer-vision species ID. Comparable in using AI for species identification at community scale, but with broader taxonomic and geographic coverage.
• eBird (Cornell Lab of Ornithology): Citizen-science bird observation platform with AI-assisted species ID. Closely comparable to Wild Me's citizen-science and AI-identification model, applied to the avian niche.
• Movebank: Global database and platform for animal movement data, hosted by the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. Highly comparable to Wildbook for individual animal tracking across time and space, though focused on telemetry rather than photo-ID.
• SMART Conservation Tools: Open-source software for wildlife monitoring and anti-poaching patrols, jointly developed by WCS, WWF, and other conservation NGOs. Comparable to Wild Me as mission-aligned open-source conservation software with NGO/government deployments.
• GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Intergovernmental network providing open access to biodiversity occurrence data. Comparable to Wild Me as a backbone data infrastructure for conservation research, though broader in taxonomic scope and not photo-ID focused.
• Wildlife Insights: AI-driven camera-trap wildlife monitoring platform developed with Google and conservation partners. Most direct competitor to Wildbook/Scout in applying computer vision to wildlife population monitoring at scale.

Broad incumbents

• Conservation International: Major global conservation NGO with significant technology initiatives. Comparable as a potential enterprise-scale customer and ecosystem partner for AI-driven biodiversity monitoring.
• Wildlife Conservation Society: Large conservation NGO operating global field programs. Indirect overlap with Wild Me as both a potential user of Wildbook-scale tools and a broader incumbent whose conservation programs increasingly consume AI-based monitoring.
• Microsoft AI for Earth: Microsoft's grant and technology program supporting AI applications in conservation. Both sponsor of Wild Me and a broader incumbent that funds and competes for conservation AI projects globally.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/WildMeOrg
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/wild-me

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Wild Me