Asheville’s Ecobot teams up with global leader Esri for powerful mapping analytics

ASHEVILLE – An Asheville startup has just landed a coveted partnership with Esri, a global leader in location intelligence.

Ecobot – which provides an app specializing in transformative environmental data reporting – will join the Esri Startup Program, gaining access to access to ArcGIS online services, software development tools, ready-to-use content, training, technical support, and global partnership opportunities.

The upshot: the ability to offer some of the most powerful mapping and special analytics to field scientists in the world.

“This partnership provides our customers with access to GPS and mapbuilding capabilities that they’re used to working with via ArcGIS, right in the Ecobot app,” Ecobot’s co-founder and chief scientific officer Jeremy Schewe told WRAL TechWire.

“This allows collected data to be georeferenced to location, corresponding to any models or external references like the National Wetlands Inventory or soil maps.”

Added Katie Decker, Esri Startup Program’s community manager: “Esri is excited to have Ecobot join our cohort of Emerging Business Partners, we look forward to showcasing the benefits provided by their extended field collection solution and valuable data integrations.”

Ecobot’s co-founders Jeremy Schewe and Lee Lance. Source: Ecobot.

In the field. Source: Ecobot.

Transforming how field data is collected

Back in 2018, Ecobot landed a $450,000 seed investment round led by Cary-based Cofounders Capital.

Its early mission: to digitize the environmental regulatory services industry.

Currently, many businesses that conduct environmental field research rely on a three-page paper documents. Often scientists are using a pen in the field to document observations about water, plant life, and soil quality, and later transcribing their observations and notes into a computer database system.

“Environmental consultancies have an urgent need for this industry to move into the 21st century,” cofounder and CEO Lee Lance said. “Not just with isolated efficiency tools, but also with total-workflow, digital solutions that transform the way they’re able to both protect our natural resources and enable economic progress.”

The company’s first version of software provided a swifter way to input wetland delineation data, provide contextual vegetation and soil data lookups, and automatically generate regulatory reports, all while scientists are in the field.

David Gardner and Tim McLoughlin of Cofounders Capital believe they’re backing something special, too.

“The solution provides indisputable ROI for the customers. Any reasonable business person will look at Ecobot’s offering and realize it is a no-brainer to buy,” McLoughlin told WRAL TechWire. “The partnership continues to validate the product that Ecobot is building. Esri is an international billion dollar company that is already providing critical services to all of Ecobot’s existing and prospective customers. This integration is one more step closer to streamlining their entire workflow.”