Pi Labs’ investment in Airmo
We are pleased to announce our investment in Airmo’s €5.2 million Pre-Seed round led by Findus Ventures, with participation from Ananda, E2MC, Antler, notable angels Rainer Horn, Anna Alex and the European Space Agency.
Background to the investment
At Pi Labs, we are committed to addressing the climate crisis by investing in innovators who can shape the cities of the future.
We believe that accurate data and insights are essential for governments, industries and communities to reduce their emissions and collectively achieve net-zero on a global scale. However, the current solutions for monitoring emissions are inaccurate and expensive with many organisations still having to use educated guesswork to quantify their impact. Increased regulation in reporting requirements has given birth to several environmental reporting solutions, but the hardware to accurately monitor carbon and methane emissions at a global scale is still missing.
We met Daria Stepanova, an aerospace engineer and co-founder of Airmo at the WVC:E Summit in Paris. She was solving this complex problem with an ambitious plan to launch a constellation of satellites. Since then, we have seen her bring together an incredibly talented founding team to build Airmo. We are excited to partner with the team and support their mission to monitor humanity’s impact on Earth.
An overview of the company
- Industry: SpaceTech / Sustainability
- Location: Berlin, Germany
- Problem: According to a BCG report, 85% of companies are concerned about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but only 9% are able to measure emissions comprehensively and have an error rate of 30–40%.
- Solution: Airmo plans to launch a constellation of satellites mounted with LiDAR sensors and advanced software capabilities to provide a high-precision measurement of carbon and methane emissions globally. They will start by addressing the highest emitters, i.e., oil & gas, cement, and other industries in the built world.
Why we invested
Founder-market fit: We believe that Daria, Harriet, Errico, and Pavels are the perfect founding team for Airmo combining the science, space and sustainable business expertise needed to launch this business into orbit. Daria has launched over 10 satellites in her previous role as CTO of German Orbital System. Harriet brings a wealth of knowledge from successfully commercializing Planetly, a climate tech company. Errico has over 30 years of experience at the European Space Agency. And Pavels provides the essential operational backbone to support Airmo’s growth.
Size of the opportunity: The global GHG emissions in 2019 were 50 billion tons, a 40% increase from just 30 years ago. The social cost of emissions is estimated at $51 per ton, which translates to a social total cost of $2.5 trillion per annum. The current emissions monitoring market is over $10 billion per year and is expected to grow to $40 billion by 2030. Airmo’s innovative LiDAR and spectrometer payload will provide data that is an order of magnitude more accurate than competing solutions.
What’s next?
Airmo has raised this round to grow the team, build and launch their first satellite, and onboard customers.
We believe that Airmo has the potential to be a major player in the fight against climate change. We are excited to partner with them and support their mission to make a positive impact on the world.
