OroraTech is the first NewSpace start-up to provide global wildfire detection and monitoring services. The platform is already used by government agencies, insurance companies, and commercial forestry operators around the globe, helping to mitigate the environmental and economic impacts of forest fires and other climate change-related topics. The latest €5.8 million Series A funding round is led by Findus Venture and Ananda Impact Ventures, with contributions from APEX Ventures, BayernKapital, and experienced Business Angels including Clemens Kaiser, SpaceTec Capital and Ingo Baumann. It will be used for further advancement of technology and the development of the international team.
Wildfires destroy 30-40 million hectares of vegetation every year, causing insured losses of over 20 billion US dollars. These initially difficult to identify forest fires release around eight billion tons of CO2 – more than global automobile traffic. OroraTech counteracts this increasingly devastating economic and environmental damage and develops, in addition to its platform solution, its own worldwide nanosatellite network that can identify fires around the globe in near real-time.
This Series A round has a significant impact on the development of OroraTech’s satellite technology and wildfire detection services. “This funding round will enable us to launch our first satellites and scale our geospatial data analysis platform,” says Thomas Grübler, CEO and Co-founder. The first launch is planned for the end of 2021 and will be the basis of their thermal infrared nanosatellite constellation. In 2023, 14 more nanosatellites will follow, and by 2026, more than 100 OroraTech satellites will be in orbit.
“OroraTech is a leader in thermal-infrared data from space. With its unique information from this data and modern SaaS approach, OroraTech will meet the ever-growing demand for space-based data”, says Christian Federspiel, CEO of Findus Venture.
Florian Erber, Managing Director at Ananda Impact Ventures, adds: “What excites us about OroraTech is the immediate impact on mitigating Climate Change by protecting our natural carbon sinks and reducing CO2 emissions on a large scale.”
The company’s focus is to prevent, monitor and uncover the damages caused by climate change and to tackle environment-related business opportunities. Besides forest fire detection, OroraTech also works on solutions to monitor gas flares, improve weather models, and analyze agricultural areas. “Thermal-infrared satellite imagery allows for a great number of use cases,” says Björn Stoffers, CMO and Co-founder. “Our primary target is to expand our position as the leading provider of satellite-based wildfire monitoring.” OroraTech’s platform currently uses a custom wildfire detection algorithm and data from 14 different satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Geostationary Orbit (GEO) to notify users of fires in their area of interest and to support immediate firefighting. The company is expanding its customer base in the U.S. and Canada, as well as strengthening its presence in Brazil, Chile, and Australia. OroraTech is also cooperating with NGOs to preserve wildlife in Africa.
For more information please visit: www.ororatech.com
