AgTech startup OroraTech closes €5.8 million Series A round
German startup OroraTech closed a €5.8 million Series A round led by Findus Venture and Ananda Impact Ventures, bringing its total funding to $8.9 million.
Founded in 2018, OroraTech provides 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.
“This funding round will enable us to launch our first satellites and scale our geospatial data analysis platform.” – 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’s constellation is designed to fill in the gaps and provide a completely new set of thermal-infrared data, providing real-time information on fires worldwide.
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. Our primary target is to expand our position as the leading provider of satellite-based wildfire monitoring.” – Björn Stoffers, CMO and Co-founder.
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.
The funding round will enable OroraTech to grow its international team and establish branch offices in the United States and Australia.
