LiveEO secures €19 M from Helen Ventures and other investors to bring Space Data Insights to Industry 4.0
LiveEO, the leading provider of satellite analytics, announced it has secured €19M in funding in what is one of the largest investments to date in Earth Observation in Europe. The round included €17M of venture capital funding led by MMC Ventures, and further funds from the European Commission and Investitionsbank Berlin. Also, Helen Ventures participated in the round together with other investors. LiveEO is looking to accelerate market expansion for its infrastructure monitoring products, as well as enter new markets.
LiveEO’s core product is an infrastructure monitoring suite powered by satellite imagery. The company uses artificial intelligence to analyse Earth observation data, and gives operators of railways, power lines and pipelines actionable information on the risk posed by vegetation, ground deformations, or third parties. The software enables customers to optimise the maintenance programs of core infrastructures assets, making them increasingly resilient to climate change. In turn, this reduces travel disruptions, power outages and supply chain delays.
“It is exciting to see that our vision, as well as execution so far, attracted interest and investment from both top-tier venture capital firms as well as the public sector. We want to bring insights derived from space imagery to every global value chain, and continue to focus on human-centred applications. This financing round brings us a significant step closer to that goal.” said Sven Przywarra, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of LiveEO. “We are kicking off the third big wave of the commercialisation of the Space industry. After huge investments in rockets and satellites in the past years, it is time for companies like us to develop highly automated applications which translate data from hundreds of Earth Observation satellites into real value for end-users.” commented his counterpart in the founder and CEO role, Daniel Seidel.
Deep tech investor MMC has shown great interest in the NewSpace ecosystem, and identified Earth Observation as a fast-growing market. This investment round, one of the biggest for a company in this space in Europe so far, is a testament to this assessment. Despite the challenging macro environment, all existing shareholders continue to back the company and have participated in the round - they include DvH ventures, Helen Ventures and Matterwave. Segenia Capital and HDI joined the round as new investors.
Dr Terhi Vapola, Vice President, head and founder of Helen Ventures commented, “Our mission is to back the leading European founders who are transforming the energy sector. Earth observation data combined with artificial intelligence provides tremendous opportunities to change the way infrastructure monitoring is done. We have been very impressed with Sven and Daniel and their team, who have built the best product in the market and drive the transformation with leading customers not only in Europe but across the world. This round enables LiveEO to supercharge their scaling also into new markets and industries".
Andrei Dvornic, Principal at MMC Ventures commented, “We are excited to lead the funding round for LiveEO, reflecting our continued focus on emerging datasets and companies that develop AI analytics to power core business decisions. LiveEO offers a critical tool that paves the way for sustainable industry automation, and we wholeheartedly support the company’s vision of leveraging satellite technologies, big data and the latest developments in artificial intelligence to help companies adapt to the challenges posed by climate change”.
Since the initial Series A round, LiveEO has more than doubled its headcount, tripled its revenue, signed new customers across five continents, and strengthened its market-leading position in infrastructure monitoring. In the past four years, LiveEO’s products have empowered its clients to streamline their maintenance operations, making them safer and more efficient, and saving thousands of tons of carbon emissions in the process.
The new funds will accelerate LiveEO’s global market expansion in the infrastructure sector and will enable it to enter new markets. HDI’s Ulrich Wallin, former CEO of the world’s third largest reinsurance company Hannover Rück and one of the global experts in the space, will support product development and go-to-market for the insurance sector.