BurnBot

Wildfire risk is one of the most difficult long-term challenges facing homeowners, communities, insurers, regulators, and the broader risk management ecosystem. That is why I am genuinely excited about Mercury Insurance’s strategic investment in BurnBot. I am grateful to be part of the team that brought this "first of its kind" partnership to life, and I am optimistic about what it represents: a move toward connecting real-world risk reduction with insurance availability and affordability.. The traditional insurance toolkit is necessary, but it is not sufficient. Pricing, underwriting, reinsurance, capital management, and regulation all matter. But if we want durable insurance markets in wildfire-prone regions, we also have to reduce the physical risk itself. BurnBot’s work in robotic, data-driven hazardous-fuel reduction and vegetation management is an important example of where this can go. The goal is not just to better measure wildfire risk. The goal is to help communities become safer, more resilient, and more insurable over time. I am proud that our team is leaning into this kind of proactive approach. This is hard work. It will require science, technology, insurance expertise, public-private collaboration, and a willingness to test new scientific and economic models. But I believe this is exactly the kind of work the industry needs to be doing. Congratulations to the BurnBot team and to everyone at Mercury who helped make this possible.

Last month, our team brought the future of fuel management to Napa County and held a live fire mitigation demonstration, which drew an incredible turnout. Vintners, land trusts, local residents, and fire departments all came out, and the engagement was incredible. Our field demonstration started with our mechanized fuels crew operating advanced equipment, including our remote-controlled masticators, and then transitioned into a live RX2 demonstration showcasing a neat, almost smokeless approach to prescribed fire. During the demonstration, our team walked through how we plan and execute fuel treatments, why our approach is more precise, faster, and more cost-effective than conventional vegetation management, and how we use these tools to scale to larger projects. #BurnBot #PrescribedFire #WildfirePrevention #WildfireMitigation #RiskReduction SF Climate Week

Prescribed fire is one of the most effective tools for reducing wildfire risk. But traditional methods are slow, unpredictable, and constrained by weather and regulatory limits. BurnBot builds robotic systems that perform controlled burns with precision, keeping fire contained to exactly where it is needed. The technology operates in conditions that would shut down manual crews and delivers results in hours instead of days. Fire is not just a problem. Managed correctly, it is part of the solution. #WildfireResilience #ClimateTech #ForestManagement #ClimateAction https://burnbot.com/

📰 INTERVIEW: A $5 million wildfire buffer around the Palisades could have dramatically reduced damage that contributed to a $40 billion insured loss, BurnBot CEO Anukool Lakhina believes, saying robotics-enabled mitigation has become impossible for insurers to ignore. 🟢 Read the full interview >>> https://lnkd.in/enXRPD8i 🏷 BurnBot | Anukool Lakhina | Mercury Insurance | Thomson Reuters 🔒 Not a subscriber yet? Learn more here: https://bit.ly/3OmPl0N 🔎 Key takeaways: ✅ "For $5 million we would have dramatically transformed the risk that ended up being a [nearly] $50 billion insured loss fire. The ROI is pretty astonishingly obvious" ✅ 200 million acres across the US need fuel treatment but the entire country treats only 2 to 3 million acres in a good year: "There's a 100x gap that needs to be filled. This is not a demand-constrained market. This is a supply-constrained market" ✅ BurnBot's robots do the same work as traditional hand crews at half the cost and five to ten times the speed, collecting before-and-after data that gives carriers verifiable evidence of risk reduction ✅ Approximately 1,100 US towns are equally or more at risk than Los Angeles was before the January fires: "It's not a question of if, but when fires will hit these towns" ✅ The business has grown fivefold since the January 2025 LA fires, with pipeline quadrupling overnight: "It felt like a COVID moment for wildfire resilience" ✅ A 1,000-acre wildfire buffer BurnBot is building in Incline Village protects approximately $6 billion of property value ✅ "This is the first time an insurance company is saying, we will invest in reducing risk, and not just focus on pricing the risk" ✅ "At some point we have to move beyond admiring the risk and actually removing the risk" ✅ Founded in 2022, BurnBot has raised $65 million in total financing with customers including PG&E, SoCal Edison, CAL FIRE and the US Forest Service #insurance #wildfire #California #BurnBot #mitigation #robots #insurtech #climaterisk #TheInsurer

Big news from BurnBot! We’re proud to announce a strategic investment and alliance partnership with Mercury Insurance. This marks Mercury’s first strategic investment in a private company - and a major signal that the future of wildfire resilience and insurance availability will be built through proactive mitigation. Together, BurnBot and Mercury will work to connect real-world wildfire risk reduction with insurance outcomes - combining fuels treatment, defensible space, and risk intelligence to help communities become safer, stronger, and more insurable over time. California’s insurance crisis requires new thinking. This partnership is about building a model where verified mitigation can help improve resilience, protect communities, and expand pathways to coverage. This is an exciting milestone for BurnBot, and an important step toward scaling practical wildfire solutions where they’re needed most. Read more at the link below. https://hubs.ly/Q04gcMxw0 #WildfireMitigation #WildfireResilience #ClimateTech #InsuranceInnovation #CommunityResilience #DefensibleSpace #Wildfire #California #Insurtech

Great to see BurnBot featured by NBC News Bay Area - and to have the work recognized with the Verizon Disaster Resilience Prize. In the segment, Ford Ainslie of Partnerships and Growth at BurnBot, walks through how the RX2 enables controlled, low-smoke prescribed fire—bringing a proven tool into places and conditions where it hasn’t historically been feasible. Wildfire mitigation isn’t just about response - it’s about prevention at scale. We appreciate the NBC team for telling the story. https://lnkd.in/gYjuhXbf NBC News BurnBot #WildfireMitigation #ClimateTech #PrescribedFire #Innovation

We like to think of the BurnBot RX as a mobile burn chamber, but most people don't know exactly how the BurnBot RX works. Here's what's happening inside that burn chamber. 🔥 1️⃣ Ignition — Inside the chamber, a computer-controlled array of propane torches ignites the vegetation. Operators can adjust the flame height and temperature based on the terrain and fuel load. 2️⃣ Containment — Large fans mounted above the chamber pull air inward, creating suction that keeps flames and embers inside. Nothing escapes. 3️⃣ Smoke management — Rather than releasing smoke into the air, the high-heat, high-oxygen combustion burns off the smoke inside the chamber itself. The result: virtually no emissions, even in smoke-sensitive communities. 4️⃣ Ember suppression — Steel rollers at the rear press down on the burned ground to tamp out embers. A water mist spray then extinguishes any embers remaining. #BurnBot #PrescribedFire #RiskReduction #WildfireMitigation #Blackline

Join BurnBot in Napa County for a live wildfire mitigation demonstration featuring our Mechanized Fuels Crews and RX2 prescribed fire systems in action. Hosted at La Fe Vineyard in Atlas Peak on April 28th from 10:00 AM–12:00 PM, this hands-on event is open to fire agencies and departments, landowners and stewards, public officials, community leaders, utility operators, fire safe councils, and anyone looking to get ahead of destructive wildfire risk. Click the link below to RSVP!🔥🤖 https://hubs.ly/Q04c4bTZ0 #BurnBot #WildfireMitigation #RiskReduction #PrescribedFire

Meet the RX2, our all-star player in the fight to reduce wildfire risk. Designed for complex, real-world conditions, this system delivers precise, low-emission prescribed burns across a range of weather and dense vegetation. By creating clean, controlled blacklines, the RX2 helps remove hazardous fuels before peak fire season, supporting safer communities and protecting critical infrastructure. Every operation is not only effective, but also safer for crews and gentler on nearby communities and ecosystems. It’s a glimpse into the future of proactive wildfire mitigation—and it happens to look pretty cool while it works.🤖🔥 #Blackline #BurnBot #WildfireMitigation #PrescribedFire #RiskReduction