Spoor launched in 2021 with the goal of using computer vision to help reduce the impact of wind turbines on local bird populations. Now, the startup has proven its technology works and is seeing demand from wind farms and beyond.
Based in Oslo, Norway, Spoor has built software that uses computer vision to track and identify bird populations and migration patterns. The software can detect birds within a 2.5-kilometer radius, or about 1.5 miles, and can work with any off-the-shelf high-resolution camera.
Wind farm operators can use this information to better plan where wind farms should be located and to help them navigate migration patterns. For example, a wind farm could slow down its turbines, or even stop them entirely, during heavy periods of local migration.
Co-founder and CEO Ask Helseth explained that he got interested in this space after learning that wind farms lacked effective tracking methods, despite many countries having strict rules around where wind farms can be built and how they can operate due to local bird populations. He noted that the expectations from regulators are growing but the industry did not have a great tool, with many people relying on binoculars and trained dogs to find birds colliding with turbines.
Helseth stated that the company has since proven the need for this technology and worked to make it better. At the time of its seed raise in 2024, Spoor was able to track birds in a 1-kilometer range, which has since doubled. As the company has collected more data to feed into its AI model, it has improved its bird identification accuracy to about 96 percent.
Identifying the species of the bird adds another valuable layer for clients. Spoor employs an in-house ornithologist to help train the model on new types of birds or species, which is especially important as deployments expand to other countries with rare species.
Spoor now works across three continents and with more than 20 of the world’s largest energy companies. It has also started to see interest from other industries such as airports and aquaculture farms. The company has a partnership with mining giant Rio Tinto to track bats.
There has also been interest in using its tech to track other objects of similar size, like drones. Helseth joked that drones are like a plastic bird in their system, but noted they currently discard that data while acknowledging the interest.
Spoor recently raised an 8 million euro Series A round led by SET Ventures with participation from Ørsted Ventures and Superorganism, plus strategic investors.
Helseth predicts that interest in this type of technology will only grow as regulators continue to crack down on wind farms. He cited an example from April where French regulators shut down a wind farm due to its impact on the local bird population and imposed substantial fines.
The company’s mission is to enable industry and nature to coexist. Helseth said they have started on that journey but are still a small startup with a lot to prove. In the coming years, Spoor aims to cement its position in the wind industry and become a global leader in tackling these challenges, while also building proof that this technology has value beyond that main category.