22 MARCH 2022 PARIS, – KAYRROS, the leading climate and energy data analytics company, has concluded a new €40 million financing round. Participants in the round include the French government, acting through French Tech Souveraineté. The programme is part of the France 2030 framework led by the General Secretariat for Investment (SGPI) and operated by the French Public Investment Bank (Bpifrance). Other investors were the European Investment Bank (EIB); NewSpace Capital; Opera Tech Ventures, the VC arm of BNP Paribas group; and Kayrros’ historical investors.
The funds will support Kayrros’ groundbreaking geospatial detection technologies, which analyse satellite images and other data to assess the climate impacts resulting from economic activity. Kayrros’ measurements help private and public sector organisations manage climate risks, implement lowcarbon transition strategies, achieve critical sustainability goals and transparently communicate their progress.
This funding contributes to the construction of a New Space, made up of a variety of actors financed by both private funds and state agencies, and promoting spatial sovereignty in radically new terms. The support provided to Kayrros by French Tech Souveraineté, of which this is the first investment, expresses France’s desire to work with both established players and new entrants to meet the challenge of future space explorations. France 2030 intends to devote a total of €1.5 billion to enable within five years a French reusable launcher, new participants in the space industry and greater connectivity constellations.
The funding underscores Kayrros’ governmental support and longevity, and brings the funds raised by Kayrros since its founding in 2016 to €72 million. The latest funding will accelerate the company’s commercial development, fostering its global leadership of the geospatial monitoring industry essential for addressing the climate crisis.
Antoine Rostand, Kayrros President, said: “This funding brings together several fields of relevance to Kayrros, starting with the public sector represented by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Bpifrance through French Tech Souveraineté. Their participation underscores the importance of the New Space sector for French and European climate policy, as expressed by President Emmanuel Macron in his presentation of European spatial strategy.
“Opera Tech Ventures, the VC arm of BNP Paribas group, brings best-in-class expertise from the financial industry, a sector not previously represented by Kayrros investors, as we address the sector’s growing demand for climate data.
“NewSpace Capital will help us grow as an emerging leader in the space industry. And the continued support of our early investors continues to energise us as we scale up.” “The availability of reliable near real-time climate data is a strategic advantage for a country’s energy security, sustainability and economic growth. Relying in part on public data from the European Space Agency, Kayrros and its partners have built a toolbox to fight global warming, the adoption of which must be accelerated. It is in this capacity that Bpifrance supports this operation,” said Adrien Muller of Bpifrance.
Ambroise Fayolle, Vice President of EIB, said: “Energy security and the carbon footprint are key issues for the public and private-sector. Kayrros has built powerful solutions to tackle these challenges. Kayrros’ objectives are aligned with European economic and climate policy and EIB is happy to support Kayrros in the pursuit of these goals.”
Felix von Schubert, Chairman of NewSpace Capital, said: “Since its creation in 2016, Kayrros has established itself as the world expert in spatial data processing applied to energy and climate for civil markets. The know-how accumulated by Kayrros will have a huge scope of application as climate action accelerates. This fundraising opens a new chapter in Kayrros’ development when the appetite for climate impact measurements will grow exponentially.”
Reinvesting in Kayrros for this round, Jacky Abitbol, Managing Partner of Cathay Innovation, said: “Climate change mitigation is at the heart of government and companies’ concerns which is why they are increasingly seeking to turn their commitments into measurable results. Thanks to its artificial intelligence-based technology, Kayrros’ platform empowers organisations through actionable information to tackle our era’s greatest challenge.
“Since our first investment in Kayrros in 2018, we have sought to empower the company’s purposedriven progress and have been able to witness the team’s ongoing success. Today, we are proud to continue supporting the company’s development into the future.”
This latest financing for Kayrros was made up of a mix of equity and quasi-equity investments.
