Cambium's AI Transforms Waste Wood into Lumber

Across America, a common sight unfolds: a tree gets chopped down, yet instead of being turned into useful lumber, it's often just shredded. This practice doesn't sit right with Ben Christensen. Growing up amidst New Mexico's towering pines and coming from a family deeply rooted in the timber industry—his dad being a carpenter and woodworker—Christensen has always had a deep respect for trees.

According to Christensen, the main culprit behind this wood waste is a lack of coordination. "If you're running a tree care service, your focus is on getting to the next job," he explained to TechCrunch. "Detouring to drop off logs at a place that could reuse them just doesn't fit into the schedule."

Seeing an opportunity in this wasted resource, Christensen, along with Marisa Repka and Theo Hooker, started Cambium. This startup rescues wood destined for the chipper or burn pile, mainly using software to streamline the supply chain connections.

Cambium's big draw is its ability to help businesses either buy or sell more wood, depending on their needs. They offer better service and more reliable, long-term contracts.

One way they achieve this is by creating their own products. Cambium has developed methods to ensure consistency from typically unpredictable wood sources. They collaborate with suppliers and mills to produce these products, which are then sold to companies like Room and Board and Steelcase.

Beyond just furniture-grade lumber, Cambium also manufactures cross-laminated timber, a type of engineered wood formed into panels, in partnership with companies such as Mercer Mass Timber, SmartLam, Sterling Structural, and Vaagen Timbers.

Salvaging wood isn't just a smart business move; it's also good for the environment. "Every time you transport wood 10 miles instead of 1,000, you're reducing your carbon footprint. And every tree you keep standing in the forest helps too," Christensen pointed out.

While a few large timber companies control the market, the rest is pretty scattered. "It usually takes eight to 10 different businesses to get the material to the end user," said Christensen, who is Cambium's CEO.

At each stage of this journey, there's a transaction, and that's where Cambium's software steps in. The startup currently works with about 350 different organizations, including tree care companies, trucking firms, and sawmills. Most of these businesses haven't gone digital yet, and without a compelling reason, they're not eager to do so.

Cambium focuses on the business opportunities rather than pushing the software. "If you try to sell my uncle on wood software, you'll be hanging up pretty quick," Christensen said. "But if you tell him, 'Hey, I want to buy 40,000 board-feet of four-quarter white oak from you every 60 days,' he'll be all ears, grabbing his pen and paper to talk."

By keeping tabs on transactions throughout the value chain, Cambium is amassing a wealth of data on the timber industry's operations. They're using this data to develop an AI that can help traditional pen-and-paper businesses digitize their records.

To further develop these models and expand their platform, Cambium secured $18.5 million in funding, led by VoLo Earth Ventures, as they exclusively shared with TechCrunch. Other investors include 81 Collection, Alumni Ventures, Dangerous Ventures, Groundswell, MaC Venture Capital, NEA, Rise of the Rest, Soma Capital, Tunitas Ventures, Ulu Ventures, Understorey, and Woven Earth.

Currently, Cambium lures companies to its platform by offering access to customers, but Christensen has bigger plans. He wants the next version to revolutionize how these businesses manage their records without altering their day-to-day operations significantly. The aim is to use the AI they're developing to pull information from phone calls and slot it into the right spots in a database.

"It's all about understanding how folks in this industry prefer to get their information. If you're driving a truck, you're not sitting at a laptop. You want a text or a call," Christensen said. "That's what we're doing to keep things simple."