The Berlin-based climate-tech startup has developed a micro-LiDAR and SWIR imager small enough to fly on a nanosatellite, and claims it can detect a methane leak the size of a leaking car from orbit.
AIRMO, a Berlin and Luxembourg-based startup building space-based greenhouse gas monitoring technology, has closed a €5 million seed round to fund its first satellite launch in 2027 and expand its existing airborne operations across Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia.
The round was led by Ananda Impact Ventures, a Munich-based impact VC managing approximately €200 million across four funds. New investors joining the round include Unconventional Ventures, kopa ventures, Desai Ventures, and Hypernova / New Venture Securities.
Two partners from EQT, Matthias Fackler (Partner and Head of EQT Infrastructure Advisory Team Europe) and Francesco Starace (Partner in EQT’s Infrastructure Advisory Team and former CEO of Enel), invested as individual strategic investors, not through an EQT fund. Existing backers Antler, Findus Ventures, E2MC, and Pi Labs also participated.
AIRMO’s core technology is a sensor payload that combines a short-wave infrared (SWIR) pushbroom spectrometer with a proprietary micro-LiDAR system. The company says this is the first time a sensor of this type and power has been miniaturised for deployment on a small satellite.
The LiDAR component corrects for atmospheric variables, aerosols, wind patterns, that degrade the accuracy of spectrometer-only systems. Together, AIRMO claims the combination delivers roughly twice the accuracy of existing satellite monitoring solutions, enabling detection of methane plumes from single sources as small as a leaking vehicle, from 500 kilometres up.
The first satellite, built in partnership with Bulgarian manufacturer EnduroSat and its ESPA-class FRAME-15 platform, is targeting launch in early 2027.
It is designed to serve as the foundation for a 12-satellite constellation, with commercial data products available from first light to oil and gas operators, financial institutions, regulators, and NGOs.
AIRMO was founded in 2022 by Daria Stepanova, described by Startbase as a rocket scientist and serial founder who has overseen several satellite launches.
The AIRMO website lists a CTO with 15 years in space optical instruments, a Senior Space Optics Engineer with 28 years in ESA optoelectronics and LiDAR systems, and a Board Chairman who co-founded South Pole, the carbon markets consultancy that grew into a unicorn.
The company is supported by the European Space Agency through its InCubed programme, which funded a €3.7 million contract as part of AIRMO’s €5.2 million pre-seed round in 2023 (led by Findus Venture; Ananda Impact Ventures also participated in that earlier round).
Methane is estimated to account for around 30% of current global warming, yet facility-level emissions remain substantially underreported. Regulatory pressure is increasing: the EU Methane Regulation now requires emissions reporting from gas importers, and the OGMP 2.0 framework sets a new baseline for site-level measurement that many existing monitoring approaches cannot meet.
AIRMO’s technology is already deployed commercially on drones and aircraft, with Uniper, Total, and ESCE named as customers using the system for energy infrastructure monitoring.
CEO Stepanova described the seed round as enabling AIRMO to move from validation to continuous monitoring, and framed the satellite launch as a step toward the company’s stated long-term goal of monitoring millions of energy assets worldwide.
Alina Bassi, Principal at Ananda Impact Ventures, said reducing methane leakage is among the most effective near-term levers for decarbonising the energy sector and noted Ananda has backed the team since inception.
The new capital will also support a local presence in the MENA region, where AIRMO already has an office in Abu Dhabi (AIRMO MENA, based at Hub71 in Al Maryah Island).
