YPOG has advised the EIC Fund, the investment fund of the European Commission, on a recent financing round of Berlin-based new-space and geospatial AI company LiveEO GmbH. The round amounts to more than EUR 28 million as part of a first closing and includes, in addition to the EIC Fund, defence-focused fund Helantic and b2venture as new investors as well as existing investors NordicNinja, DeepTech & Climate Fonds (DTCF), Matterwave Ventures, MMC Ventures, Segenia Capital and Greencode Ventures.
Based in Berlin, LiveEO develops a platform that combines satellite data with AI-powered analytics to monitor critical infrastructure worldwide from space. The company supports operators of energy and transport networks as well as other infrastructure stakeholders in detecting risks along power lines, pipelines, railways and transport corridors at an early stage, managing vegetation and environmental risks and efficiently complying with regulatory requirements. In addition to its civil infrastructure business, LiveEO is increasingly expanding its solutions for security and defence applications and, with “Twinspecter”, is developing its own constellation of Earth observation satellites to provide high-resolution 3D data for dual-use scenarios.
The new funds are intended in particular to support the international scaling of LiveEO’s platform business for critical infrastructure globally as well as the expansion of additional use cases, for example in wildfire prevention, vegetation monitoring and pipeline surveillance. At the same time, LiveEO plans to accelerate its activities in the security and defence segment and to further advance the development and deployment of the Twinspector constellation. With the participation of the EIC Fund, LiveEO’s European growth strategy is further supported, contributing to the expansion of an independent European offering for satellite-based geospatial intelligence.
“We are pleased to have supported the EIC Fund once again in another financing round,” says Dr Johannes Janning, Partner at YPOG. “The investment in LiveEO highlights the EIC Fund’s long-term approach to specifically backing European deep tech and new space companies. The fact that we have been advising the fund regularly for several years on investments in German tech startups is a sign of the strong trust placed in our transactions team.”
YPOG has been advising the EIC Fund on its venture capital investments in German startups for several years and has supported the fund on numerous growth financings of technology-driven companies in the fields of deep tech, climate tech and digital health.
Team
Dr. Johannes Janning (Lead, Transactions) Partner, Köln
Laura Franke (Transactions) Senior Project Lawyer, Köln
Paul Harenberg (Transactions), Associate, Köln
Dr. Miriam Peer (Transactions), Associate, Hamburg
Dr. Benedikt Flöter (IP/IT/Data Protection), Partner, Berli
Dr. Lea Ossmann-Magiera (IP/IT/Data Protection), Associate, Berlin
Matthias Treude (IP/IT/Data Protection), Senior Associate, Hamburg
Helena Dierckx (Transactions), Associate, Berlin