German Startup OroraTech Raises $16M for Climate Mission 

OroraTech leadership team. Photo: OroraTech

OroraTech, a Munich-based startup working to monitor thermal data from space extended its Series A funding round with 15 million euros ($15.8 million) from private investors and public sector funding. 

Belgian climate impact fund Edaphon led the round with existing investors Findus Venture, Ananda Impact Ventures, Wachstumsfonds Bayern 2, ConActivity, APEX Ventures, SpaceTec Capital, as well as Ingo Baumann and Clemens Kaiser. The European Space Agency (ESA) and the government of the German state Bavaria provided funding as well. 

“We support companies that have the potential to create a positive impact on the environment at a large scale,” says Joost Van Laer, investment manager at Edaphon. “We were impressed by OroraTech’s first commercial Wildfire Intelligence Solution and the team’s great qualities and complementarity, as well as their ambition to continue developing high-impact solutions over the coming years.”

OroraTech has the first uncooled thermal-infrared camera in space, which launched on a Spire satellite in January of this year. This additional funding will expand its climate solutions portfolio and fund the launch of the second thermal-infrared camera in space in May 2023.

The company plans to have a constellation with a 12-hour revisit by 2024 and a 30-minute revisit by 2026. Its current product, Wildfire Intelligence Solution, uses third-party data for wildfire detection and monitoring and the company claims it detects over 100,000 fires daily and protects more than 160 million hectares of forest on six continents.  

[Read Via Satellite’s interview with OroraTech CEO Thomas Grübler, published in August]