Company expands commercial deployments while advancing the integrated hardware, software, and data platform powering intelligent forestry operations

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kodama, a robotics company building physical AI for forestry, today announced $7 million in financing co-led by Konvoy Ventures and Breakwater Ventures. The round includes participation from Blue Forest Asset Management, NYA Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Congruent Ventures, Dangerous Ventures, M1C, and others.

The financing brings Kodama’s total funding to $14 million and will support expanded commercial deployments, deeper OEM partnerships, and continued development of autonomy capabilities for complex off-road environments.

Forestry contractors face a growing operational challenge: demand for timber, forest management, and wildfire-resilience work is rising, but the work requires long hours at remote jobsites. Experienced, reliable operators are increasingly difficult to recruit and retain, and when an operator misses a shift, an expensive machine sits idle - undermining the economics of the entire operation.

Kodama combines supervised autonomy with teleoperation, enabling machines to handle repeatable tasks while experienced operators remotely manage complex work and edge cases. This hybrid approach amplifies the capabilities of skilled operators and improves machine utilization.

Kodama’s technology is already deployed in commercial logging operations across the southeastern United States. Over the last 6 months, machines equipped with Kodama’s technology have moved more than 100,000 tons of timber across multiple states.

“Kodama’s tech stack is not something that can be vibe coded,” said Merritt Jenkins, CEO and co-founder of Kodama. “It has to work in harsh environments with high uptime for crews that depend on it every day. That requires ruggedized hardware, production-grade software, safety systems, and a tight feedback loop with customers in the field.”

As Kodama deploys more machines, its data advantage compounds through a continuous learning loop across equipment, operators, worksites, and forestry workflows. Each deployment generates real-world operating data and field insight that improve performance today while building the foundation for increasingly autonomous forestry operations over time.

“Kodama is building more than autonomy software,” said Jackson Vaughan, Managing Partner at Konvoy Ventures. “The company is developing integrated hardware, deepening relationships with customers and equipment manufacturers, and building the real-world dataset required to make intelligent forestry work at scale. That combination is difficult to reproduce and becomes stronger with every machine and customer Kodama brings online.”

Kodama is building its platform within the existing forestry-equipment ecosystem, allowing customers to adopt new operating capabilities while preserving the value of their existing machine fleets. The company has integrated its technology with forestry-equipment manufacturers and is expanding support across additional equipment platforms.

“AI is coming to every major industrial sector, but adoption will be won by companies that solve real operating problems today,” said Will Finney, General Partner at Breakwater Ventures. “Kodama stands out because it is already helping forestry contractors make better use of skilled labor, while improving safety and equipment productivity.”

“The future of heavy equipment will not arrive in a single autonomous leap,” said Jenkins. “Kodama is building the intelligence layer for heavy equipment operating in unstructured environments. We are starting with human-in-the-loop autonomy systems and building toward an intelligent platform that orchestrates entire operations.”

About Kodama
Kodama is a robotics company building physical AI for forestry. The company deploys remote-operation and autonomy systems that improve safety, labor flexibility, productivity, and operational visibility across complex off-road environments. Learn more at kodama.ai.

About Konvoy
Konvoy is an early-stage investment firm investing in critical industries. The firm backs founders building in autonomous systems, defense, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, energy, and deep tech. Learn more at konvoy.vc.

About Breakwater
Breakwater Ventures is a Seattle-based pre-seed and seed fund that invests in solving labor shortage. The firm backs companies in sectors where a lack of workers caps output, including agriculture, manufacturing, industrial, defense, national security, back office, and skilled trades, and where value accrues to the specialist. Learn more at breakwater.vc.

Contact
Ben Pinfield, Marketing, Kodama Systems
415-761-1547
media@kodama.ai