The archive · Climate & Energy · Strategic decision · 2022–2026
Aira bets monthly-fee heat pumps can take Europe off gas; raises €150M more in 2025
Vargas's Aira sells heat pumps on monthly plans, targeting 5M European homes; a €145M Series B in 2024 and €150M in 2025 back the rollout.
Aira
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.
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.
Background
Aira was created by Vargas, the Swedish investment house behind Northvolt, to sell home heat pumps directly to consumers on monthly payment plans. Launched in the UK, Germany and Italy in early 2024, it debuted its first proprietary heat pump in London that March, framing the gas boiler — not other heat pump makers — as the enemy, and promising up to 40% savings on heating bills and a 75% cut in CO2 emissions.
The bet was that the blocker to heat pump adoption is not the technology but the model: a heat pump generates about four units of heat per unit of power, yet most households balk at the upfront cost and worry about poor installations. Aira bundles the unit, installation, maintenance and a 15-year comfort guarantee into a monthly fee, finances Italian installations itself and runs its own heat pump academies to train installers.
Capital followed the model: a €35M Series A in 2023, a €145M Series B in January 2024 led by Altor, Kinnevik and Temasek plus a €15M Polish grant for a Wroclaw factory, and a further €150M in August 2025 from the same core investors for a Swedish R&D centre and expanded production. By then Aira reported a €200M annual sales run-rate and 1,200 employees.
The open question is scale, not demand: the largest existing German installer aimed at around 10,000 units in 2023 while Aira targets 5 million European customers within a decade, and the market still faces installer shortages and electricity prices that make gas cheaper per unit in the UK.
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.
Sources
- Aira secures €145 million for heat pump expansion, manufacturing
- Swedish heat pump maker Aira aims to break European homes' dependency on natural gas
- Aira raises €150m to fund heat pump rollout across Europe
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