Kodama Raises $7 Million to Expand Remote Forestry Automation

Kodama has raised $7 million to expand a forestry automation system that has already moved more than 100,000 tons of timber in six months of commercial use. The California startup’s approach pairs remote human operators with machine autonomy, aiming to keep logging equipment working when crews are hard to staff and to increase the hours machines can run.

The seed round was co-led by Konvoy Ventures and Breakwater Ventures, with participation from Blue Forest Asset Management, NYA Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Congruent Ventures, Dangerous Ventures, M1C, and others. It brings Kodama’s funding to $14 million. Founded in 2021 by CEO Merritt Jenkins and Matt Verminski, the company is building automation for forestry equipment, starting with skidders: machines that drag felled logs through the woods.

Keeping equipment and crews working

For logging contractors, staffing a machine reliably can determine whether a whole sequence of work proceeds as planned. Skidder jobs involve long days on rough ground, often at sites far from workers’ homes. Jenkins says the physical strain contributes to high turnover. One contractor Kodama works with had eight skidder operators over the past year.

Absences have an outsized effect because each machine needs an operator and the work is sequential. A fruit operation may still gather some of its crop if part of a large crew is missing; a logging crew can lose substantial productivity when one essential machine sits idle. Jenkins says contractors often find it difficult to fill five shifts a week, even when a worker reliably shows up for four.

Kodama’s system lets an operator supervise a fitted skidder remotely, handling repeatable tasks through automation while a person steps in for complicated work or unusual conditions. The first version has been in commercial operation for a year. Jenkins describes this as a staged route toward more capable systems: human oversight remains part of the operation as the company works toward software that can coordinate a broader set of tasks.

Remote operation also changes the working day. Instead of traveling to a logging site and sitting in the machine’s cab, an operator can control the equipment from elsewhere. Jenkins puts typical one-way travel to sites at 45 minutes to two hours. He says Kodama has measured hourly productivity on a par with a manually operated skidder, while its overall labor costs are lower because workers’ compensation and travel expenses are reduced. The company’s cost case could improve further if a single operator can manage several machines.

Training remote operators takes about one or two days, Jenkins says. Kodama looks for people with practical machine experience and, ideally, gaming experience that has helped develop hand-eye coordination. Its current hiring range tends to include people in their mid-20s through early 40s.

More operating hours and forest data

Kodama says its equipment is working in commercial logging operations across the Southeast. Over the past six months, machines fitted with the system moved more than 100,000 tons of timber. The company is integrated with two large forestry equipment manufacturers and retrofits a skidder in about one to one and a half days.

The hardware includes NVIDIA computing equipment, eight cameras, two LiDAR sensors, Starlink connectivity and GPS. Kodama’s next operational goal is to extend machine use from 10 hours a day to 20. The system can also work at night: LiDAR measures surroundings with laser pulses, so its operation doesn’t depend on daylight. Longer shifts could raise capacity, while remote staffing addresses the risk that a machine will be left unused when an operator can’t make it to the site.

The machines still run on diesel and require refueling and greasing. Other workers at the site therefore continue to provide basic support. Kodama’s larger operational target is to let one remote operator oversee multiple machines, though the company’s current system combines automation and human supervision.

The equipment also collects information about the forest. During thinning, when some trees are removed to change the density of a stand, Kodama generates detailed maps beneath the canopy. LiDAR data can capture measurements timberland owners track, including trees per acre, trunk diameter at breast height and basal area. That information could give clients a clearer record of the remaining stand alongside the timber-moving service.

A service model for contractors

Kodama charges logging contractors for access to the equipment and service, with rates structured from daily to monthly. It typically reaches those contractors through timberland owners, equipment manufacturers and dealership networks. Jenkins says the networks connect across many contractors, giving the company a route into a fragmented operating base through a smaller number of industry relationships. He says awareness of Kodama has spread across nearly all of the Southern logging industry.

The company has also heard interest from Brazil and Australia. Jenkins says the business model will need to reflect how forestry work and equipment markets are organized in each location, so overseas interest does not yet imply a single expansion template.

Kodama’s near-term test is whether its measured productivity and labor savings hold as operations run longer and as remote operators take responsibility for more than one machine. The 100,000-plus tons moved offer evidence of commercial use; the next step is showing that longer shifts and additional forest data can fit reliably into contractors’ day-to-day work.