Upstream Tech
Upstream Tech builds AI-powered software for land and water resource management, serving hydropower producers, water utilities, government agencies, conservation organizations, and energy traders through its HydroForecast streamflow forecasting and Lens land monitoring platforms.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2016
- HeadquartersAlameda, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Upstream Tech does
Upstream Tech is a US-based climate technology company that builds AI-powered software for land and water resource management, serving hydropower producers, water utilities, government agencies, conservation organizations, mining operators, and energy traders. The company operates two core SaaS products: HydroForecast, a streamflow forecasting platform that delivers probabilistic forecasts across hourly, seasonal (90-day), and annual (1-year) horizons; and Lens, a satellite-imagery-based remote monitoring platform for land use and land cover change. Both products are built on machine learning applied to environmental and geospatial data, with HydroForecast combining physical hydrology principles with ML in a theory-guided AI approach using a multi-model ensemble architecture ingesting GFS, ECMWF, and HRRR weather inputs.
Upstream Tech was founded in 2016 by Marshall Moutenot and Alden Keefe Sampson, acquired by Natel Energy in 2018, and spun back out as an independent company in October 2023 following a strategic investment from Hull Street Energy. The company is incorporated as Upstream PBC, a Public Benefit Corporation headquartered in Alameda, California, and operates a remote-first team with offices at Greentown Labs in Somerville, Massachusetts. It monetizes primarily through tiered subscription SaaS contracts with annual billing, sold via direct enterprise sales with ~90-day deployment timelines and supported by the Carahsoft channel partnership for the US public sector. Customer logos include Brookfield Renewable, Hydro-Québec, Engie, NorthWestern Energy, Landsvirkjun, Denver Water, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Forest Service, and The Nature Conservancy, among hundreds of organizations worldwide.
The company has documented quantitative outcomes including up to 6% revenue uplift for hydropower customers (per an Idaho National Lab study), 27% more accurate streamflow forecasts than traditional methods, 4-day earlier warning for Hurricane Helene, and 33% more accurate peak-flow predictions during that event. Its technology has been independently validated by winning 23 of 25 categories in a CEATI/U.S. Bureau of Reclamation forecasting competition conducted through drought and 1000-year-storm conditions, and the company reports that HydroForecast now covers 10GW of hydropower capacity. R&D funding has included NOAA and multiple U.S. Department of Energy SBIR grants.
Upstream Tech firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Upstream Tech
- Legal name
- Upstream PBC
- Website
- https://upstream.tech
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2016
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Upstream Tech builds AI-powered software for land and water resource management, serving hydropower producers, water utilities, government agencies, conservation organizations, and energy traders through its HydroForecast streamflow forecasting and Lens land monitoring platforms.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Upstream Tech industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Environmental Monitoring Software
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (513210), Software Publishers (5132)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Flood Risk Modeling, Mapping & Forecasting (Hydrology/Hydraulics, Digital Twins) (EUANAEAH)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Hydrology, Environmental & Fish Passage Solutions (Flow Modeling, Mitigation, Fish Ladders) (EUAMADAK)
Keywords
Where Upstream Tech is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Alameda
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Upstream Tech business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- HydroForecast SaaS Subscription: Subscription-based software-as-a-service for streamflow forecasting targeting hydropower producers, utilities, and government agencies. Revenue derived from basin-level deployments and forecast horizon tiers (short-term, seasonal, annual).
- Lens SaaS Subscription: Subscription-based remote monitoring platform for land use and land cover change. Targets conservation organizations, carbon programs, government agencies, agriculture, and utilities.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | HydroForecast tiers based on forecast horizons |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels6 records
Upstream Tech product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Upstream Tech develops and sells two SaaS software products: HydroForecast, an AI-powered probabilistic streamflow forecasting platform delivering forecasts across hourly, seasonal, and annual horizons for hydropower, water utilities, mining, and government customers; and Lens, a satellite imagery and machine learning platform for remote monitoring and reporting of land use and land cover change, serving conservation, carbon, government, agriculture, and utility customers.
Product overview
Upstream Tech is a climate technology company offering two core SaaS products built on satellite data and machine learning: Lens (remote monitoring platform for land use/land cover change via satellite imagery) and HydroForecast (AI-powered streamflow forecasting platform for water resource management). Both products leverage machine learning and geospatial sciences to support large-scale environmental decision-making across conservation, water utilities, hydropower, and government sectors.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Lens: Remote monitoring and reporting platform for land use and land cover change with satellite imagery and machine learning. Built for conservation, carbon, government, agriculture, and utilities.
- HydroForecast
Products and services
- HydroForecast Industry-leading AI-powered streamflow forecasting platform delivering probabilistic forecasts across short-term (hourly, 10-day), seasonal (90-day), and annual (1-year) horizons. Built for hydropower producers, energy traders, water utilities, mining operations, and government agencies to reduce risk, optimize operations, and maximize revenue. Uses theory-guided AI combining physical hydrology with machine learning and a multi-model ensemble ingesting GFS, ECMWF, and HRRR weather inputs.
- Lens Remote monitoring and reporting platform that leverages satellite imagery and machine learning to monitor land use and land cover change. Built for conservation, carbon, government, agriculture, and utilities customers to support environmental monitoring, forest carbon verification, and large-scale land stewardship decisions.
Quantifiable outcome
- Up to 6% revenue increase for hydropower customers (Idaho National Lab study)
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use Upstream Tech
Customer profileNamed customers28 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Upstream Tech technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability7 records
Feature4 records
Upstream Tech partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered major, core and minor.
- Colorado State Land BoardmajorPartnership to modernize land stewardship monitoring for Colorado state lands using Lens remote monitoring platform.
- CTreesmajorPartnership to improve access to high-quality forest data by integrating CTrees data into Lens platform for enhanced forest monitoring.
- CarahsoftcorePartnership to bring Upstream Tech's land and water management software to the US public sector. Carahsoft serves as a technology distributor for government customers.
- Natel EnergycoreUpstream Tech was acquired by Natel Energy in 2018, and subsequently spun out as independent company in 2023 with strategic investment from Hull Street Energy.
- National Hydropower AssociationminorProud member of National Hydropower Association industry community.
- International Hydropower AssociationminorMember of International Hydropower Association. April 2026: Upstream Tech joins IHA.
- Association of California Water AgenciesminorMember of ACWA serving California water agencies.
- Greentown LabsminorMember of Greentown Labs cleantech startup ecosystem. Somerville office located at Greentown Labs headquarters.
- Women Business EnterpriseminorProud member certified as Women Business Enterprise.
- US Geological SurveymajorUSGS has developed tools including the Natural Flows Database that complement HydroForecast. Organizations collaborate on water resource data and forecasting methodologies.
- The Nature ConservancymajorTNC has developed water resource forecasting tools and is a customer of HydroForecast for watershed management and salmon conservation.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Upstream Tech competitors and assessment
Company assessmentOthers
- Planet Labs: Operator of the world's largest commercial satellite constellation, supplying imagery that underpins Lens's land-monitoring product. A current Upstream Tech partner (Kate Newton Correll was previously at Planet) and adjacent data provider rather than direct competitor.
Emerging players
- Descartes Labs: Geospatial analytics company applying ML to satellite imagery for agriculture, energy, and sustainability use cases. Closely comparable to Upstream Tech's Lens product in technology and customer verticals.
- Tomorrow.io: AI-driven weather intelligence platform offering enterprise forecasts across energy, transportation, and government. Competes with HydroForecast on ML-based forecasting but with broader weather rather than hydrology specialization.
- Atmo AI: AI weather forecasting company applying foundation models to atmospheric prediction. Competes on the ML/forecasting methodology side and targets similar enterprise/government buyers in energy and water.
Broad incumbents
- DTN: Enterprise weather and climate analytics provider serving agriculture, energy, and commodities. DTN offers hydrology and weather-driven decision tools that compete head-to-head with HydroForecast at utilities and energy traders.
- ESRI: GIS and spatial analytics incumbent with ArcGIS widely used by water utilities and government agencies. Competes in the broader geospatial-decision-support workflow rather than directly in streamflow forecasting.
- Vaisala: Global leader in weather, environmental, and industrial measurement. Vaisala competes in renewable energy forecasting and hydrometeorology, and Pascal Storck (Upstream Tech advisor) is Vaisala's Head of Technology — directly overlapping in customer base and forecast methodology.
- IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite: IBM's environmental intelligence suite combines weather data with AI for water, energy, and climate risk analytics. Targets the same enterprise/government buyers as Upstream Tech with a much larger technology and sales footprint.
Direct peers
- DHI (Danish Hydraulic Institute): Specialist in water resources modeling with the MIKE software suite used widely for hydrology, flood, and coastal modeling. Competes with HydroForecast in hydropower and government water-management workflows.
- Kisters: Water resources and environmental IT vendor providing hydrological forecasting, dam monitoring, and energy management software. Direct competitor in the European hydropower and water-utility market.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks1 record
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Upstream Tech social profiles
Digital presenceUpstream Tech financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Upstream Tech leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles17 records
Upstream Tech funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds5 records
Investors12 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Upstream Tech M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Upstream Tech
What does Upstream Tech do?
Upstream Tech develops and sells two SaaS software products: HydroForecast, an AI-powered probabilistic streamflow forecasting platform delivering forecasts across hourly, seasonal, and annual horizons for hydropower, water utilities, mining, and government customers; and Lens, a satellite imagery and machine learning platform for remote monitoring and reporting of land use and land cover change, serving conservation, carbon, government, agriculture, and utility customers.
Is Upstream Tech a public or private company?
Upstream Tech is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Upstream Tech founded?
Upstream Tech was founded in 2016. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Upstream Tech based?
Upstream Tech is headquartered in Alameda, United States, in the North America region.
How does Upstream Tech make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. HydroForecast SaaS Subscription is the primary driver. The others are lens SaaS Subscription.
Who are Upstream Tech's main competitors?
Planet Labs is listed as an others. Emerging players are Descartes Labs, Tomorrow.io and Atmo AI. Broad incumbents are DTN, ESRI, Vaisala and IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite. Direct peers are DHI (Danish Hydraulic Institute) and Kisters.
Does Upstream Tech have an API?
No public API is recorded for Upstream Tech.
What industry is Upstream Tech in?
Upstream Tech's product category is Environmental Monitoring Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EUANAEAH, Flood Risk Modeling, Mapping & Forecasting (Hydrology/Hydraulics, Digital Twins), with a secondary code of EUAMADAK, Hydrology, Environmental & Fish Passage Solutions (Flow Modeling, Mitigation, Fish Ladders). Its NAICS code is 513210 and its SIC code is 7372.