What Pyregence does

Pyregence is an open-source wildfire science consortium operating as a multi-institutional collaboration of researchers, public agencies, and private firms. Originally formed through a California Energy Commission EPIC grant, the consortium develops and disseminates a suite of wildfire forecasting and simulation tools, with PyreCast as its flagship near-term forecasting application providing projections of fire weather, risk, and spread potential up to 16 days in advance. The technical stack combines complementary fire models — ELMFIRE (level-set perimeter), GridFire (probabilistic ensemble), CAWFE (coupled atmosphere-fire, NCAR), and FRSM (statistical large-fire occurrence, UC Merced) — with vegetation and carbon models LANDIS II and LUCAS, all unified under the Pyretechnics fire-behavior library. Outputs span 150m to 3km spatial resolution and cover 1–7 day operational forecasts as well as multi-decadal climate-informed scenarios.

The consortium serves emergency managers, land-use planners, electric utilities, researchers, policy makers, and the general public through a hybrid distribution model: free open-access tools and data repositories (pyrecast.org, data.pyregence.org, GitHub) for community adoption and peer review, paired with a licensed commercial PyreCast tier (pyrecast.com) sold to enterprise and utility customers. Revenue is generated through subscription licensing of PyreCast advanced capabilities, with adjacent monetization through insurance partnerships (Delos Insurance, Fire Factor, Property Guardian Overwatch) and a federal channel via the US Department of Defense WARN initiative. Strategic alliances span Google.org, the World Bank, FAO, the European Commission JRC, NASA, NSF, CAL FIRE, Cal OES, and the California Public Utilities Commission, anchoring the consortium in both California-centric regulatory workflows and international wildfire governance efforts.

Name

Pyregence

Legal name

The Pyregence Consortium

Website

https://pyregence.org

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Pyregence is an open-source wildfire science consortium that builds and disseminates wildfire forecasting and simulation tools, led by the PyreCast platform, serving emergency managers, electric utilities, land-use planners, researchers, and policy makers through free open-access data and licensed commercial subscriptions.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Wildfire Forecasting and Simulation Software

NAICS

Support Activities for Forestry (115310)

SIC

Forestry (800)

akta.pro primary industry

Climate Hazard & Catastrophe Modeling (Flood, Wind, Wildfire, Heat, Sea-Level Rise) (EUABALAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Wildfire Mitigation (PSPS, Covered Conductor, Ignition Prevention) (EUADAHAB), Integrated Forest Health & Fire Management Planning (AFAMAEAK), Wildfire Risk Assessment, Prevention & Suppression Services (IMAMAJAG), Downscaled Climate Projections & Scenario Analytics (CMIP, SSP/RCP, Regionalization) (EUABALAB)

Keywords

• Wildfire forecasting software
• Fire behavior modeling
• Vegetation simulation models
• Climate risk analytics
• Open-source fire science

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Open-source tools and data: All data, code, and models developed through Pyregence are openly available to support community adoption, peer review, and ongoing innovation. The project exemplifies cross-sector collaboration between scientists, software engineers, public agencies, and private partnerships.
2. PyreCast licensing: PyreCast offers a free open version and advanced licensed capabilities for commercial use. The platform is described as a commercial SaaS offering, indicating revenue generation from licensed enterprise and utility customers.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Pyregence provides open-source wildfire forecasting and simulation tools, anchored by the PyreCast platform that delivers near-term projections of fire weather, risk, and spread potential up to 16 days in advance. The offering includes a suite of complementary simulation models (ELMFIRE, GridFire, CAWFE, FRSM, FRSM/LUCAS, LANDIS II, LUCAS, and the Pyretechnics Library) that integrate real-time and forecasted weather, fuel conditions, topography, ignition sources, and atmospheric dynamics to simulate wildfire ignition, growth, and landscape impact. The ecosystem is delivered via a free open version for community and public use, alongside advanced licensed commercial capabilities for utilities, emergency managers, and commercial customers.

Product overview

Pyregence is an open-source wildfire science consortium that provides a platform-plus-models architecture centered on PyreCast, its flagship wildfire forecasting application offering near-term projections of fire weather, risk, and spread potential up to 16 days in advance. The platform encompasses a suite of complementary simulation models including ELMFIRE (Eulerian fire spread), GridFire (probabilistic ensemble modeling), CAWFE (coupled fire-atmosphere), FRSM (statistical fire risk), and FRSM/LUCAS (coupled vegetation-carbon framework), along with vegetation models LANDIS-II and LUCAS for long-term landscape projection, all supported by the Pyretechnics Library of fire behavior equations. These tools serve emergency managers, land use planners, electric utilities, researchers, and policymakers through open-access data repositories and market-facing applications. The entire ecosystem is built on open, peer-reviewed science with all data, code, and models openly available.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• PyreCast: Next-generation wildfire forecasting platform providing near-term projections of fire weather, risk, and spread potential up to 16 days in advance. Available as free open version and advanced licensed capabilities.
• ELMFIRE
• GridFire
• CAWFE
• FRSM
• LANDIS II
• LUCAS
• Pyretechnics Library

Products and services

• PyreCast PyreCast is Pyregence's flagship wildfire forecasting application providing near-term projections of fire weather, risk, and spread potential up to 16 days in advance. It is available as a free open version for public use and an advanced licensed commercial version for utilities, emergency managers, and commercial customers requiring additional capabilities.
• ELMFIRE ELMFIRE (Eulerian Level Set Model of Fire) is an open-source wildland fire spread model that represents the evolving fire perimeter as a continuous surface within a 2D or 3D grid, solving the Hamilton-Jacobi partial differential equation to handle non-convex fire shapes, rapid spread direction changes, and detailed fire front/spotting/terrain interactions.
• GridFire GridFire is a next-generation wildfire modeling system that leverages probabilistic approaches and high-performance computing for dynamic, large-scale simulations of fire behavior under uncertain weather conditions, producing fire perimeters, burn probabilities, and arrival times across hundreds of ensemble outcomes.
• CAWFE CAWFE (Coupled Atmosphere-Wildland Fire Environment) integrates a high-resolution numerical weather prediction model with a fire behavior module to capture two-way interactions between wildfires and atmospheric conditions. Developed by Dr. Janice Coen at NCAR.
• FRSM FRSM (Fire Risk Simulation Model) is a statistical wildfire modeling system operating at 3-kilometer resolution that projects large-fire occurrence, size, and severity under changing climate, vegetation, and land-use conditions using logistic regression, generalized Pareto, and multinomial logit models.
• FRSM/LUCAS Framework The FRSM/LUCAS Framework is a fully coupled modeling framework that integrates the Fire Risk Simulation Model (FRSM) with the Land Use and Carbon Scenario Simulator (LUCAS) to project landscape evolution under changing climate and management conditions, linking wildfire dynamics with vegetation, land use, and carbon processes.
• LANDIS II LANDIS II is a spatially explicit landscape disturbance and succession model that projects how forests and shrublands will respond to changing climate, disturbance, and management over the coming century, operating at 150-meter resolution and tracking cohort dynamics of tree and shrub species.
• LUCAS LUCAS (Land Use and Carbon Scenario Simulator) is a modeling system that tracks how California's land, vegetation, and carbon storage change over time in response to climate, wildfire, and human activity at 1-kilometer resolution, integrating land-use transitions, vegetation growth, disturbance, and carbon accounting.
• Pyretechnics Library The Pyretechnics Library is an open-source fire behavior library developed by Spatial Informatics Group and Cloudfire that provides tools and equations for modeling surface fires, crown fires, spot fires, and firebrand production/dispersal in a 3D space-time framework using Rothermel's surface fire rate of spread equation.
• PyreCast Data Repository The PyreCast Data Repository is a centralized data platform providing access to near-term fire forecasting data including active fire forecasts, fire weather forecasts, fire risk forecasts, fire detections, and fuels data for researchers and practitioners.
• Pyregence Data Repository The Pyregence Data Repository is a comprehensive data platform containing datasets from the Pyregence project, including tree mortality data, long-term wildfire model outputs from FRSM/LUCAS, LANDIS-II projections, and wildfire burn severity and emissions data covering 1984-2020.

Quantifiable outcome

• 16-day advance wildfire forecasting capability
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

19 partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.

• Google.orgflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerGoogle.org supports Pyregence's AI Collaborative initiative for Wildfires as part of international efforts to advance wildfire science through artificial intelligence and machine learning integration.
• The World BankcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWorld Bank partnership focused on Integrated Fire Management as part of global efforts to address wildfire risk in developing regions.
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFAO partnership for Global Fire Management Hub contributing to international wildfire governance and management frameworks.
• European Commission Joint Research CentrecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with European Commission Joint Research Centre for European and Global Fire Information Systems, advancing fire monitoring and prediction capabilities internationally.
• NASAcoreTechnology or IntegrationNASA partnership for validation, benchmarking, and GeoAI research. NASA satellite data used for fire detection and monitoring integration with Pyregence models.
• National Science Foundation (NSF)coreTechnology or IntegrationNSF partnership supporting research validation and academic collaboration in wildfire modeling and climate science.
• PlanscapecoreTechnology or IntegrationPlanscape treatment planning integration providing complementary capabilities for landscape-scale forest management and treatment prioritization.
• US Department of DefensecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWARN (Wildfire Assessment & Resilience for Networks) initiative for situational awareness supporting defense infrastructure resilience.
• RMRS Missoula Fire Sciences LabcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for Open Wildfire Analytics Lab Modernization, leveraging decades of fire science research from the premier US fire research institution.
• CAL FIREflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerCalifornia Department of Forestry and Fire Protection partnership for Community Wildfire Risk & Mitigation, providing operational data and requirements for model development.
• California Public Utilities CommissioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for Utility Fire Threat Mapping and Resiliency Planning, supporting CPUC's wildfire mitigation regulatory requirements.
• California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFIRIS (Fire Integrated Real-Time Intelligence System) partnership for emergency operations support and situational awareness.
• Watch DutyflagshipGTM or Marketing PartnerCommercial partnership for PyreCast + Watch Duty brand collaboration in near real-time wildfire monitoring market.
• Delos InsurancecoreGTM or Marketing PartnerDelos Insurance offers home insurance powered by Pyregence science for climate risk financial modeling in the annualized risk market.
• Fire FactorcoreGTM or Marketing PartnerClimate risk financial modeling partnership serving the annualized risk market with Pyregence-derived risk metrics.
• Spatial Informatics Group (SIG)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSIG developed the Pyretechnics Fire Behavior Library and GridFire model as part of the Pyregence Consortium, providing core modeling capabilities.
• CloudfirecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCloudfire developed the ELMFIRE model and is part of the Pyregence Consortium contributing to the Pyretechnics Library development.
• UC MercedcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUC Merced's Leroy Westerling developed the FRSM model and the university provides data repository hosting and research collaboration.
• National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNCAR's Dr. Janice Coen developed the CAWFE model, with efforts underway to incorporate CAWFE into the PyreCast platform.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• DTN: Large commercial weather, climate, and agricultural analytics company serving utilities, agriculture, and energy. Overlaps with PyreCast in providing weather-driven fire risk products to utility and emergency management customers, but as part of a much broader portfolio.
• Esri: Dominant GIS platform provider widely used by fire agencies, utilities, and land managers for spatial wildfire analysis. Comparable as the foundational spatial analytics layer many Pyregence customers operate within, with overlapping enterprise and government customer base.
• Tomorrow.io (ClimaCell): Commercial weather intelligence platform with fire weather forecasting capabilities serving enterprise customers. Comparable as a weather-driven risk analytics vendor for utilities and operations, though broader in scope than Pyregence's wildfire specialization.

Direct peers

• Spatial Informatics Group (SIG): A core Pyregence consortium member that developed the Pyretechnics Fire Behavior Library and GridFire model. Comparable as a wildfire modeling and forest management analytics consultancy with overlapping scientific capabilities, products, and customer base.
• Watch Duty: Nonprofit near real-time wildfire alerting and monitoring platform with which Pyregence has a co-marketing partnership. Overlaps directly in serving emergency managers and the public with situational awareness, complementing PyreCast's forecasting with active fire alerting.
• Technosylva: Commercial wildfire risk analytics and simulation software vendor serving utilities, government agencies, and insurers. Direct competitor to PyreCast with proprietary wildfire modeling tools such as Wildfire Analyst, overlapping target customers in the US West, and a similar PSPS and risk-based pricing use case set.
• Cloudfire: Pyregence consortium partner that developed ELMFIRE. Comparable as a wildfire simulation modeling group with similar scientific focus on fire spread and behavior, contributing directly to the open-source ecosystem Pyregence distributes.

Emerging players

• Risk Frontiers: Natural hazard risk analytics firm producing catastrophe models used by insurers and governments. Comparable as a catastrophe modeling provider serving insurance and emergency management, intersecting with Pyregence's Fire Factor / Delos Insurance vertical.
• Descartes Labs: Geospatial analytics company applying machine learning to satellite imagery for wildfire detection and risk monitoring. Overlaps with Pyregence in serving wildfire stakeholders with data-driven insights, though with a more commercial and ML-centric approach.
• WIFIRE Lab: University of California San Diego research lab building wildfire data infrastructure and decision-support tools, partnered with Cal OES on FIRIS. Comparable as a research-driven wildfire analytics initiative focused on situational awareness and emergency response support.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/pyregence
• YouTubeyoutube.com/watch?v=hFblB3asPJk
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/pyregence-consortium

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 Pyregence