atmio, an operating system for finding, fixing, and reporting methane emissions, has just landed €5.1 million in seed funding. The round was led by Notion Capital with participation from SquareOne (invested in Glassfy and coboworx). Other investors that participated in the round include HCVC and Robin Capital.
In addition, angel investors Bernhard Mohr, former VP Gas Detection at Dräger, and David Rowan’s VOYAGERS Climate-Tech Fund invested in the round.
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.
Kamil Mieczakowski, Partner at Notion said, “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 added, “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.”
What challenge does it address?
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. Methane leakages occur primarily from natural gas escaping due to maintenance issues or broken equipment such as pipelines or tanks. Methane emissions are responsible for a third of global warming and are the second highest GHG contributor to climate change following CO2. Reportedly, 60% of global methane emissions result from human activity, and a third of this comes from the energy sector.
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.
Hamburg-based atmio is building the operating system for the oil and gas sector to effortlessly find, fix, and report methane emissions.
Who is behind atmio?
Launched in 2023, the company was founded by Matthias Schmittmann, who built the gas detector startup – bentekk that exited to Dräger; and CEO) and Marius Krüger, a repeat founder with several years of experience at BP.
All-in-solution to tackle methane leaks
The German startup offers an all-in-one solution of combined handheld and stationary monitors, a mobile app, and an integrated management platform. These are fully interconnected for automated reporting, offering end-to-end detection, repair, and logging of all methane leaks.
The solution digitises the previous manual system to save time, integrate data into day-to-day processes, and manage 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, and 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 stated, “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 added, “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.”
What do we think about atmio?
Being a game-changer in the fight against methane emissions and combining hardware and software, the company offers an all-in-one solution for detecting, fixing, and reporting leaks. With the recent seed funding, its solution is poised to help natural gas companies meet new regulations, reduce emissions, and save significant resources, making a substantial impact on global warming.