OCEANSIDE – CitroTech (NYSE American: CITR) is positioning itself to be a burning hot business in the multi-billion-dollar wildfire prevention market.
The company sells two fire inhibitor products – one for treating lumber and another for protecting vegetation. For the vegetation product, CitroTech has also developed an emergency sprinkler system that property owners can deploy when threatened by wildfire.
“Inhibitors are proactive in nature and are meant to be applied in advance of a fire happening. Think of it as sprinkler systems that point away from the home and what we’re trying to do is target the vegetation in any high-risk zones around the house,” said CitroTech Chief Operating Officer Andrew Hotsko, citing the example of slopes with vegetation that allow fire to travel rapidly as it burns uphill.
In February of last year, CitroTech launched a Certified General Contractor Program to train interested contractors on the proper installation of the company’s CitroSafe systems. Sales of the sprinkler systems are where the company has seen the most traction over the last nine months, Hotsko said, driven by demand from residential homeowners living in or rebuilding in high-risk areas.
“People who are like, ‘I saw what happened in the Palisades Fire. I’m interested in finding a solution that is going to help me reduce risk,’” he said. “Basically, we’re a risk reduction company.”
CitroTech is not the only risk reduction company making fire inhibitor products but is the only one to have its products recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Safer Choice pollution prevention program.
“Having something that is truly safe for people to spray around their homes or pets and goes on clear – there’s a lot of demand for it,” Hotsko said. “We’ve doubled the number of systems year-over-year and we’re targeting to triple that this year.”
Focus on ‘Massive Commercialization’
Beyond tripling CitroSafe system sales, the company is putting a majority of its focus on selling its wood treatment product to lumber companies.
CitroTech announced in December its first commercial partnership with a leading national lumber distributor to produce wood products with the highest fire resistance rating – Class A – using CitroTech’s factory-applied, non-pressure impregnated chemistry.
“That’s just massive commercialization to where we’re taking product, applying it to wood and rendering it Class A,” explained Hotsko.
CitroTech is especially targeting companies that produce a type of lumber called oriented strand board (OSB), an engineered wood panel made from compressed layers of rectangular wood strands bonded with resin. CitroTech pretreats the board’s strands before they get pressed, Hotsko said, which upgrades the product to Class A without weakening the bond.
“If anything, it’s more favorable and we strengthen it,” he added.
CitroTech has assessed the OSB market to be worth $1 billion and is aiming its EPA Safer Choice-recognized product to capture a portion of the more than $100 million annual high-margin chemical sales taking place in the industry today.
“The opportunity is there,” Hotsko said.
New Home Insurance Standard?
Another opportunity for CitroTech is in strategic partnerships with insurance companies looking for new ways to offer policies to homeowners in high-risk areas.
“[Insurance companies are] looking at a list of 10 to 15 items when they’re looking at the overall risk of a home and they’re deciding whether to insure a home or not,” Hotsko said.
“One of the more recent items they are asking about is, ‘Do you have a CitroSafe or CitroTech system installed on your home? Do you have some sort of long-term inhibitor around the property?’”
In July, CitroTech announced a strategic partnership with WOWS Insurance LLC, a firm that aligns innovative wildfire defense to its performance-based underwriting which has allowed it to achieve a higher success rate in securing affordable coverage for clients in high-risk zones.
Hotsko said CitroTech is also in “late-stage” talks with other insurers about how to price discounts for homes with CitroSafe systems installed.
New Leadership, New Ticker
The last 12 months at CitroTech have been the most impactful for the company since its founding in 2019 by current Chief Technology Officer Steve Conboy. In addition to its more than doubling in revenue – according to the company’s most recent filing, $1.9 million in the nine months ending Sept. 30 of last year compared to $738,000 in the nine months ending Sept. 30, 2024 – CitroTech in 2025 saw major changes in leadership and its ticker symbol.
In October, CitroTech brought on Wes Bolsen as CEO, replacing Ted Ralston, who assumed the role of chairman.
Bolsen co-founded and led LaderaTech as CEO, scaling it into the world’s leading wildfire prevention and protection technology company before it was later acquired by Perimeter Solutions where he stayed in the company’s leadership team through its $2 billion public listing.
Shortly after taking the CEO role at CitroTech, Bolsen led the company’s move from the OTCID Basic Market exchange where it traded under the ticker “GEVI” to the NYSE American where it now trades as “CITR.”
Shares of CITR are up around 25% from 12 months ago, currently trading in the $7.50 to $8 range.
CitroTech
FOUNDED: 2019
HEADQUARTERS: Oceanside
CEO: Wes Bolsen
BUSINESS: fire inhibitor products
STOCK: CITR (NYSE American)
REVENUE: $1.9 million, nine months ending Sept. 30, 2025
EMPLOYEES: 22
WEBSITE: www.citrotech.com
NOTABLE: From EPA Safer Choice recognized to American Society for Testing and Materials performance, CitroTech’s chemistry has been independently validated by industry-recognized organizations
