AIRMO, a Berlin, Munich, and Luxembourg-based space technology startup developing a greenhouse gas monitoring system, announced that it has raised €5 million in seed funding. The company plans to use the capital to launch its first satellite mission in 2027 and expand its airborne monitoring coverage.
The funding round was led by Ananda Impact Ventures and included participation from Unconventional Ventures, kopa ventures, Desai Ventures, Hypernova / New Venture Securities, and strategic investors Matthias Fackler and Francesco Starace, both partners at EQT. Existing investors Antler, Findus Ventures, E2MC, and Pi Labs also participated in the round.
AIRMO is developing what it describes as the world’s first active spaceborne greenhouse gas monitoring instrument. The company has miniaturized a shortwave infrared (SWIR) imager and micro-LiDAR system so it can be deployed on a small satellite platform, enabling more precise detection of methane emissions.
Methane emissions are responsible for roughly 30% of global warming, yet the company says around 70% of leaks remain unreported. These emissions also represent a major financial loss for the energy industry, which AIRMO estimates at about $30 billion annually.
The company’s technology is already being deployed commercially on drones and aircraft conducting monitoring missions across Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa. Energy companies and validation organizations, including Uniper and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, have used the system for infrastructure monitoring. TotalEnergies has supported the company’s research and development efforts since 2023.
AIRMO said the new funding will help transition the company from pilot programs into scaled commercial operations. In addition to the planned satellite launch in 2027, the company will expand airborne monitoring campaigns across Europe, MENA, and Central Asia, integrate its payload into an EnduroSat satellite platform, and establish a local presence in the Middle East and North Africa.
The company was founded by CEO Daria Stepanova, a rocket scientist and serial entrepreneur who has worked on 12 satellite launches. AIRMO’s leadership team includes Dr. Errico Armandillo, former European Space Agency Head of Optoelectronics, as chief science officer, and David Vilaseca, who has more than 15 years of experience designing remote sensing space missions, as chief technology officer.
KEY QUOTES
“AIRMO has a simple mission: to help operators find and stop greenhouse gas losses, starting with methane. With this funding, we move beyond validation into continuous monitoring at scale — and launching our first sensor into space is a major step toward our ambition to monitor 12 million energy assets worldwide.”
Daria Stepanova, CEO And Co-Founder Of AIRMO
“Methane leakage reduction is the most effective way to decarbonise the energy industry today. AIRMO’s ability to quantify GHG emissions from space with such high precision is a game-changer, finally solving a significant transparency problem for the energy sector. Having backed the team since inception, we are proud to continue supporting their journey as they move toward their first satellite launch.”
Alina Bassi, Principal At Ananda Impact Ventures
“At seed stage, we back founders who combine deep technical credibility with a clear view of the problem they are solving. Daria is a rare example of a female founder leading at the frontier of space technology, with the expertise and ambition to tackle one of the most urgent climate challenges. That unique combination of impact and commercial relevance is why we chose to back AIRMO early.”
Alexis Burdick-Horowitz, Partner At Unconventional Ventures
“We backed AIRMO at inception because we saw a team with the technical depth and grit required to tackle one of the planet’s most urgent challenges. Since our initial pre-seed investment, the team has proven that AIRMO’s end-to-end methane monitoring service is not just visionary, but commercially essential for energy operators seeking reliable, actionable emissions insights. We are proud to continue our support in this seed round as they move from successful airborne validation to launching their first satellites this year, finally making the invisible problem of methane emissions visible to the world.”
Alan Poensgen, Partner At Antler
“We are at an inflection point: global energy demand is accelerating, driven by the infrastructure of our digital age and AI. Energy assets that cannot account for their emissions will increasingly struggle to attract capital and meet regulation, that is the reality the industry is waking up to. Daria saw this before most and has built the sensing technology to detect emissions at a precision the industry has never had before. We backed the team at pre-seed, and our conviction since then has only deepened – AIRMO is a testament to the calibre of founders our new fund, Pi Labs Fund IV, will continue to support.”
Faisal Butt, Founder And Managing Partner At Pi Labs
