What the business is
A Swedish clean-energy company that designs, manufactures, installs and services heat pumps for homes on monthly payment plans, with operations in the UK, Germany and Italy.
The bet
That households would switch from gas boilers to heat pumps if someone removed the upfront cost — a subscription model for home heating.
Starting capital
€195M in equity and grants by January 2024, including a €35M Series A and a €145M Series B; plus €200M in debt and a further €150M equity round in August 2025 (pv magazine, Sifted).
How it started
Created by Vargas — the Swedish investment house behind Northvolt — Aira launched in Italy, Germany and the UK in early 2024 and debuted its first proprietary heat pump in London that March, with UK CEO Daniel Särefjord declaring 'the boiler is the enemy'. It promised up to 40% savings on annual heating costs and a 75% cut in CO2 emissions, and set a goal of serving 5 million European customers within a decade.
What happened
In January 2024 Aira raised a €145M Series B led by Altor, Kinnevik and Temasek, plus a €15M Polish government grant to build a heat pump factory in Wroclaw. Fortune noted the company was taking on market headwinds: installers were scarce, European heat pump sales had just recorded their first drop in a decade, and in the UK gas was about four times cheaper per unit than electricity. In May 2025 Peter Prem took over as CEO, and in August 2025 Aira raised another €150M from existing investors Altor, Vargas, Kinnevik, Lingotto and Temasek for a Swedish R&D centre and expanded Polish production.
How it ended up
Still running and scaling: as of August 2025 Aira reported a €200M annual sales run-rate, 1,200 employees and operations in three countries, with about €145M in equity plus €200M in debt raised before the €150M August 2025 round — but the ambition of 5 million European customers in a decade remains unproven.
What has to be true
Heat pumps are about four times more efficient than gas boilers, but adoption stalled on upfront cost and installer quality; Aira's monthly-fee model directly attacks both.
Vargas — the firm behind Northvolt — chose home heating as its next large industrial bet, targeting 5 million European customers in a decade, far beyond the scale of the largest existing installer.
By August 2025 Aira had raised €145M in equity plus €200M in debt and added €150M more, reporting a €200M annual sales run-rate — evidence the subscription model was selling.
It faces structural headwinds: gas remains roughly four times cheaper per unit than electricity in the UK, and scaling trusted installers is the real bottleneck.
What can be applied
When the purchase price blocks adoption, change the payment model, not just the product: bundling hardware, installation and service into a subscription attacks the real barrier.
Aftermath
As of September 2026 Aira is live and scaling: it operates in the UK, Germany and Italy, employs 1,200 people, and after the €150M August 2025 round is investing in a Swedish R&D centre and expanded heat pump production in Poland, per Sifted. CEO Peter Prem, who took over in May 2025, says the mission is to take Europe off gas, with solar panels, batteries and electricity tariffs planned as the next products in the same home-energy ecosystem, per Fortune. The 5-million-customer, one-decade goal remains a bet on installer training, unit economics and heat pump market growth.
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