European space startup AIRMO closed a €5M ($5.8M) seed round to launch its first greenhouse-gas-monitoring satellite no earlier than next year, and to expand its drone and airplane monitoring into the Middle East market.
Ananda Impact Ventures led the round, which also included participation from Unconventional Ventures, Kopa Ventures, Desai Ventures, Hypernova, and New Venture Securities. Two partners at EQT—Matthias Fackler and Francesco Starace—also contributed to the round, alongside existing investors Antler, FINDUS Venture, E2MC and Pi Labs.
“AIRMO has a simple mission: to help operators find and stop greenhouse-gas losses, starting with methane,” CEO Daria Stepanova said in a statement. “With this funding, we are moving beyond validation, into continuous monitoring that will solve this problem. And launching our first satellite mission is a major step towards realizing our ambition to monitor 12 million energy assets worldwide.”
Meer AIRMO: Germany’s AIRMO was founded in 2022 to develop more accurate tech to spot methane leaks from orbit. The company is working to put together a short-wave infrared imager with a proprietary “micro-LIDAR’, and then make that sensor small enough to fly on a satellite. AIRMO claims the combination of sensors is twice as accurate as anything on the market.
Flashback: AIRMO previously announced a €5.2M ($6M) pre-seed round in 2023. Officials said at the time that the money would help fund the company’s first satellite launch…then set for the end of 2024.
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