SeekOps, a company that develops and fields sensor technology to detect, localize, and quanify natural gas emissions through integrated drone-based systems, has secured funding from two strategic investors (the OGCI Climate Investments fund, Equinor Technology Ventures) as part of its Series A-1 fundraising.
Formed in 2017 as a technology spinoff from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, SeekOps manufactures miniature gas sensors (SeekIR) and integrates them onto drones for emissions detection, localization, and quantification. The company currently offers energy sector drone services in the upstream and downstream oil and gas markets. It validated SeekIR’s capabilities during the 2018 Mobile Monitoring Challenge, an independent evaluation led by Stanford University and the Environmental Defense Fund.
In a statement, SeekOps said Equinor was an early adopter of SeekOps, previously investing in the company in June 2018.
“Equinor remains excited about the company’s development and continues to follow its growth with great interest,” said Equinor Technology Ventures managing director Rannfrid Skjervold.
OGCI Climate Investments is a fund that invests in technologies and business models aimed at lowering the carbon footprint of the energy and industrial sectors, as well as their value changes. The fund was created by the CEOs of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative to take what it calls “practical action” on climate change.
“At Climate Investments, we are focused on finding innovations that can detect, measure, and mitigate methane emissions,” OGCI Climate Investments CEO Pratima Rangarajan said in a statement. “SeekOps’ technology is complimentary to the rest of our portfolio and provides a cost-effective and accurate method for detection, localization, and quantification of emissions.”