Founder Sara Nozkova began working on the technology after 13 years in transportation and autonomous vehicles, where she saw how systems designed for controlled environments could struggle when confronted with wildlife.
“I was convinced the answer was not a louder deterrent,” Nozkova told TechCrunch.
She later joined the AI lab at KTH in Stockholm and began developing a system designed to adapt its deterrence tactics rather than relying on a fixed signal.
“We have taught machines to be brilliant, but only inside the environments we engineered for them,” she said. “Cities, factory lines, warehouses. Fixed geometry, known objects. Stepping outside into nature, I saw firsthand how the same machines quickly go blind. Because nature is complex and always alive.”
Flox says its system also adjusts over time. Instead of repeatedly using the same response, it varies the signals it produces to reduce the likelihood that animals become accustomed to them.
The company currently sells battery-powered units that can be attached to poles, trees and other structures. Customers also receive access to a software platform that tracks device locations and activity in the field. The platform can produce regulatory reports and support applications such as biodiversity monitoring.
Flox ultimately wants the software to run directly on outdoor machines, including trains, vehicles and drones.
About 150 devices are currently operating across North America, Europe and Australia, according to Nozkova. Deployments include airports and airfield boundaries, roads, railways, national parks, farms, cities, mining operations and infrastructure sites such as electrical substations.
The technology is aimed at a costly problem for transportation operators. The FAA estimates wildlife strikes cost U.S. civil aviation an average of about $272 million annually between 1990 and 2025. French rail operator SNCF says animals disrupt more than 8,000 trains each year and rank among its five biggest causes of delays. In Brittany alone, animal collisions involving 120 trains in 2023 affected 660 services and created more than 15,000 minutes of delays.
Flox sells its hardware as an upfront purchase and begins charging an annual software and AI subscription after the first year. The startup also has OEM agreements under which companies pay annual fees to use its software on vehicles. Train manufacturer Alstom is among those partners.
Nozkova said Flox expects to finish 2026 with roughly $1.5 million in revenue.
Other companies are also applying technology to wildlife deterrence. Robin Radar’s Scarecrow uses distress calls matched to specific bird species and records activity, while iCHASE combines computer vision with a moving laser system designed to react to detected birds.
Nozkova argues that Flox is differentiated by the range of its system and the real-world information it has accumulated about animal behavior, describing that data as “ground truth on what actually makes a moose or a grizzly bear move safely.”
“Physical AI is walking out of the factory and into the messy, alive outdoors,” Nozkova says. “Every machine that operates outside — trains, trucks, drones, tractors, robots — will need to understand nature, and nature intelligence is the next layer of the perception stack. Almost nobody is building it.”
Flox has raised about $5 million through pre-seed and seed financing. Unconventional Ventures and Tilia Impact Ventures led the seed round, while investors across the company’s funding rounds include GENIUS NY, Norrsken, Satgana and angel investors.
The startup is now opening a $10 million Series A. Nozkova said the capital would primarily support an expansion from roughly 150 deployed devices to several thousand, while helping Flox extend its technology beyond its existing wildlife-focused applications.
This analysis is based on reporting from TechCrunch.
Image courtesy of Flox.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
