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Press release
Efficient forestry, scaled by autonomy
Harvest trees from the air
AirForestry develops autonomous electric drones that perform forest thinning from the air. The result is forestry without ground disturbance, with high operational efficiency and lower environmental impact than conventional methods.
Airborne thinning is changing forestry
500 Mt CO2 per year
0 soil damage
Since the drones operate from the air, there is no soil compaction, no root damage, and no machine tracks left in the stand.
500Mt CO2
By thinning forests with our method, forests has the potential to sequester up to an additional 516 Mt of carbon globally per year when fully sclaed.
20Mt CO2/y in Sweden alone.
8% growth
Research shows that our method can increase forest growth with up to 8% per harvest cycle (~80y). Meaning more value for the forest owner.
Explore our solution
Airborne precision forestry
Through drone thinning, we avoid the constraints of logging trails and can select exactly which trees to remove. The goal of thinning is to create better conditions for the remaining trees and a more fully developed stand over time.
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Green trees – the ones left standing
Trees selected for their growth potential. Preserved because they make the forest stronger in the long run.
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Grey trees – The ones we remove
Trees that are overcrowded, of lower quality, or suppressing the growth of other trees, are identified and removed (thinned out) with precision from the air.
Step by step:
How flying forestry works
AirForestry’s system combines autonomous flight with a specialized harvesting tool that is extremely lightweight and robust, developed specifically for flying thinning. Multiple drones work simultaneously to harvest trees. Here is how it works, step by step, for one drone in the fleet:
1
Step 1
Tree identification
The drones automatically navigate to, and select, suitable trees using AI and computer vision.
2
Step 2
Positioning above the tree
The drone positions itself above the tree and the harvesting tool grips the top. The tool is released from the top and delimbs the tree using gravity.
3
Step 3
Tree felling
The tree is cut close to the ground.
4
Step 4
Tree extraction
After felling, the harvesting tool grips the tree and the drone lifts it out of the forest.
5
Step 5
Drops. Resets. Repeats.
The drone flies the tree to the drop-off site, then heads straight back out for the next round.
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AirForestry säkrar finansiering på 30 miljoner
Pitch
It all started with a simple idea of a new way to thin forests
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AirForestry develops an autonomous, electric multi-drone system for flying forest thinning, enabling more efficient forestry operations with lower environmental impact than conventional methods.
And it’s moving fast!
Our founder Olle Gelin...
… grew up in the forest. He represents the sixth generation managing a solar-powered family farm with surrounding woodland just outside Uppsala.
For Olle, sustainable forestry and a fossil-free forest industry have long been both a passion and a clear ambition. It’s no surprise, then, that his career has included developing hybrid trucks at Scania, followed by eight years at Skogforsk, where he initiated and led one of the world’s largest projects in forest automation, AUTO2.
Mauritz's electric vision
Our founder, Dr Mauritz Andersson, is a physicist and electric aviation enthusiast, with twelve years of research in quantum optics and eleven years of industrial experience developing optical systems.
For Mauritz, the search for sustainable solutions to the climate crisis through innovative technology has been the main driving force. Contrary to common assumptions, he believed that aviation could be the most energy-efficient mode of transport — provided it is electric.
The idea was born
The moment Olle and Mauritz first met, it was clear to both of them that forestry was ready for a completely new kind of innovation: an airborne solution for harvesting trees.
They secured early sponsorship from three of Europe’s largest forest owners, built the first versions of the drone, and registered AirForestry AB in the spring of 2020.
2020
Caroline Walerud joins the team
In the summer of 2020, Olle and Mauritz met Caroline Walerud, a biologist turned serial entrepreneur and deep tech investor. Caroline and her family office, Walerud Ventures, with investments including Klarna, Midsummer, and Paebbl, joined the company as a founding investor.
2020
Prototype 0.1
Our first prototype, one meter in diameter, was assembled in just a couple of days and flew its first test flight in June 2020. Its purpose was primarily to validate the rotor concept, and it made a strong impression, on both customers and investors.
2020
The first drone
On 18 October 2021, the team assembled the first full-scale drone, 6.2 meters in diameter.
2021
First takeoff
The first successful flight of the full-scale drone.
2022
Early commercial interest
The Swedish Energy Agency awarded AirForestry a €3M grant for further technology development. Offtake agreements signed with Sveaskog, Högtorps Gård, and Hargs Bruk.
2023
€10.3M funding round
The company closed its €10.3M funding round with top-tier investors including SEB Greentech VC, Sveaskog, Kiko VC, Capital T, and Northzone as lead.
2024
First full-cycle harvest
The first full-cycle harvest of a tree in the field was completed.
2025
Two consecutive trees
The first full-cycle harvest of two consecutive trees in the field was completed. Demonstrating that, already at this stage, the system is competitive when translated to a six-drone setup (fully scaled).
2026
