atmio, a operating system for effortlessly finding, fixing, and reporting methane emissions today announces that it has raised €5.1 million in a seed round led by Notion Capital, with participation from SquareOne. Other investors to participate in the round include previous investors, HCVC and Robin Capital; as well as angel investment from Bernhard Mohr, former VP Gas Detection at Dräger, and David Rowan’s VOYAGERS Climate-Tech Fund. atmio will use the funding to go to market, develop its product, hire new engineers, and build out a new marketing and customer success team.
A potent greenhouse gas, methane is the main component of the natural gas utilised by Natural Gas Companies to generate electricity, and homes to generate heat. Previously, natural gas operators have relied on largely manual methods of leak detection, logging and repair in response to a methane leak in their plants. This is very time-consuming and relies on manual identification of the source of a leak, and tackling each one by one. This has typically meant that most leak detection efforts are focused on safety risks, over and above detecting the smaller leaks which cause big environmental impact over time. Although operators have reported methane leaks in the past, they have often relied on rough estimates and didn’t report on a regular basis.
atmio’s all-in-one solution of combined handheld and stationary monitors, a mobile app, and integrated management platform are fully interconnected for automated reporting, offering end-to-end detection, repair and logging of all methane leaks. The solution digitises a previously manual system to save time, integrate data into day-to-day processes, and manages overall repair related shutdown time efficiently. The software enables operators to manage campaigns, check and manage repairs and at the click of a button, report all works undertaken, as well as its impact on overall emissions. It can also complete yearly emission reporting, a large part of the compliance with new regulation.
Matthias Schmittmann, CEO and Co-Founder of atmio, said: “It’s of crucial importance that we target methane leaks specifically if we are to reduce harmful emissions. Our platform helps natural gas operators to comply with new EU regulations and make a big impact on reducing harmful emissions. For example, we detected that in one customer’s single leak, our solution averted the release of methane equivalent to 160 return flights from Germany to the Maldives. This seed round will enable us to go to market in Germany and replicate this kind of success in companies across Europe.”
Marius Krüger, COO and Co-Founder of atmio, commented: “We envision becoming the world’s leading company to measure and manage greenhouse gas emissions, starting to help natural gas companies abate an additional 1 Billion tonnes of CO2 emissions. Not only does this reduce harmful emissions, but by reducing leaks, we estimate that $60B worth of emitted methane could be captured and brought to markets, yearly. We aspire to build a platform which can integrate other technologies such as satellite and drone data, to become the one source of truth for industry-related emissions.”
The energy sector accounts for ~20% of global methane emissions, and pressure on oil and gas operators has increased significantly over the last years. In May 2024, the EU announced the EU Methane Strategy, its first-ever regulation on methane emissions reduction in the energy sector. Europe’s natural gas operators must now comply with regulation on improved measurement, reporting and verification of energy sector methane emissions, incorporating mandatory leak detection and repair (LDAR). This follows legislation already in place in the US from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and frameworks from the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP). Now all natural gas companies operating in these regions must adhere to strict guidelines for their LDAR. They must now report precise numbers for every single asset and emission source, which is why currently solutions on the market are no longer sufficient.
Kamil Mieczakowski, Partner at Notion, added: “We are proud to invest in atmio, whose platform is going at the perfect time to support Europe’s numerous natural gas companies comply with new regulations designed to reduce methane emissions. The team has the necessary expertise to succeed in this industry and we look forward to helping them grow.”
Charlotte Baumhauer, Investment Manager at SquareOne, said: “Methane emissions are responsible for about 30% of global warming. We believe in atmio’s unique combination of hardware and software to address this urgent problem – and the timing is just right: with the new regulation, natural gas companies are obliged to measure, monitor and report their methane emissions according to the highest standards, and to take action to reduce them. atmio’s solution delivers immediate results for an entire industry. We are very excited to support the team on their important mission.”
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2024/06/hamburg-based-atmio-gets-e5-1-million-to-enable-natural-gas-companies-to-target-methane-leaks/
