The Problem: No Centralized Database for Plants
There is currently no easy way to identify plants on-the-go (often when the knowledge is most necessary). Databases are also fragmented country by country.
Problem One: What is that?
- What am I looking at?
- Is it poisonous or medicinal?
- Is it beneficial or intrusive?
- Can this grow in my region?
- Is this edible?
Problem Two: Fragmented Knowledge
There's currently no universal database of plantlife. Libraries are fragmented by country of origin—28,000 in Germany, 27,000 in the U.S, 30,000 in China, and so forth.
Instantly Identify Any Plant, Anywhere
PlantSnap is a mobile app that helps you identify plants, flowers and trees.
We’re using technology to bring people back to nature. Most people are so busy they rarely take a moment to stop and smell the flowers. At PlantSnap we’re reigniting interest in the plants that surround us every day and empowering scientists and enthusiasts alike with the technology to compile their discoveries.
"We will be able to spend more time assessing the ecological health and status of an area and less time trying to identify plants using field guides. This app will certainly help us be much more effective."

" I'm a plant ecologist currently finishing up my Master's at Texas Tech University, and I'm super excited to start using your app! I think it will be a great tool to botanists, and amateur plant lovers! "

App Launched!
PlantSnap officially launched June 8th. Download the app from iTunes or the Google Play Store
How it Works
Whether you're in the city or off the beaten trail, learn about thousands of plants.
Just snap, upload, and learn. PlantSnap will not only identify over 250,000 types of plants worldwide, but gather data from users that can be used for education, gaming, safety, gardening, landscaping and much more.
Take a Photo
Snap a pic of a any plant, tree or flower. In the wilderness with no internet? Just save the photo and upload once you're connected.
Learn and Discover
Upload, and instantly identify your plant. Learn facts such as where else you can find the plant, its growth habit, its edibility and more.
Keep Track of it All
Compile your discoveries in one place—never forget where you found a plant or what it's called. Be prepared to find all the plants in your area!
We are Building the Biggest Plant Database in the World
As the largest electronic library of plantlife ever, we'll become the go-to database for experts and enthusiasts.
Every image taken by a PlantSnap user will be added to our database and be used to train the machine learning algorithm. With every new image submitted, the algorithm gets smarter! If an alien species ever came to Earth, they'd go to PlantSnap to learn all about our native flora.
103,000
already in our database
90,000
Known vascular plants in the U.S.
All known plantlife in the U.S. is already available on the PlantSnap app. From Alaska to Florida, use PlantSnap anywhere to identify plants.
250,000
Known plant species worldwide
Our goal is to compile information about every known plant in the world to build the world's largest, comprehensive database.
Our Plans to Expand
The PlantSnap beta was just recently released and we're already seeing promise. Check out selected slides from our pitch deck below to learn a little more about our target market, competition, and plans for growth.
Our Timeline
Our next steps are to drum up noise and momentum to hit our goal of one million downloads by the end of the year.
PlantSnap Inception
The idea for the app comes to Eric at a backyard barbeque.
False Start
After 3 months of work with a development team funded personally by Eric, he discovers the technology isn’t poised to accomplish PlantSnap on a global scale, at least, not yet.
Machine Learning
Machine Learning – Eric reads about a new form of technology called “deep learning”, and with further research decides the technology has finally caught up to his concept. Time to get cracking.
Team Assembled
The PlantSnap dream team is formed as Eric hires developers Cosmin Lup, & Sajith Madhavan to begin programming work.
Beta App
With promising initial results, a beta version is built. Building the plant database and further algorithm training commence.
Initial Investment Round
With promising initial results, a beta version is built. Building the plant database and further algorithm training commence.
Kickstarter Campaign
After reaching our goal of 10k within 9 days, we finished strong, raising $28,733 from 1,947 backers.
Working beta released to Kickstarter backers and other testers.
We are on track to release the working beta to the public by the end of the month.
Scheduled App Launch
Our goal is to launch during spring — meaning plenty of flowers and blooms, which is what PlantSnap is built to recognize.
Gamification
Think “Pokemon Go” for plants – we’re targeting the release of the gaming updates for summer so that kids can play over their summer break.
1 Million Downloads by End of 2017
Invest, and Join Our Journey
"In the beginning, I was told this was impossible. Too many species. A lot of the flowers look the same. The technology just wasn't there yet. But that's exactly why I kept going and never gave up. If it wasn't hard, someone would have done it already."
In July of 2012, I was at a BBQ at a friend's house playing corn hole when I noticed a large plant with beautiful flowers in her backyard. I asked my friend, Christine, what kind of plant it was. She said she didn't know, and no one else at the party had any idea. At that point, I searched the internet trying to determine what type of plant it was. I started by describing the plant in the search box, to no avail. I then tried to find a website listing plants in that region, but that didn't work either. Then one of my friends asked if there was "an app for that," so I searched for plant identification apps, and there were none. That was my "eureka" moment...there wasn't an easy way to identify plants, so I was going to solve that problem.
At that time, I still owned redOrbit.com, which I founded back in 2002. I asked my development team to find a way to build an app that would instantly identify a plant, flower or tree with a photo taken from your phone. After three months and tens of thousands of dollars spent, we determined that the technology just wasn't there yet to accomplish this on a global scale.
Fast forward to 2016. I was reading about a new form of technology called deep learning, or machine learning. This was a form of computer programming whereby a computer can "learn" to recognize objects through a complicated training process. Further research convinced me that this was the perfect technology for PlantSnap, so I hired an outside group of programmers to explore whether machine learning could be used to instantly identify plants. The initial results were very promising, so we built a beta version of the app in august of 2016, and since then we have been training the algorithm to ultimately recognize every known species of plants around the globe.
Test Our Beta App
PlantSnap will officially launch in April. If you'd like to demo the app yourself, please email support@plantsnap.net to test our beta.
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