atmio emerges from stealth with €1.3M to find, fix and report methane leaks 10x faster

An operating system that helps natural gas operators find, fix and report methane emissions, combining ground-level hardware with software for detection and regulatory reporting.

That ground-level hardware-plus-software can replace manual leak detection and repair 10x faster, and keep gas operators compliant with EU methane rules.

€1.3M raised to date in a pre-seed/angel round from HCVC, Robin Capital and Nucleus Capital, plus industry angels including longtime Draeger executive Bernhard Mohr.

CEO Matthias Schmittmann previously built gas detection startup bentekk and sold it to safety technology giant Draeger; co-founder and COO Marius Krüger is a serial entrepreneur with nearly five years at BP. The two built atmio's software-hardware solution 'within a few months' and emerged from stealth in Hamburg on February 29, 2024.

At launch, Schmittmann claimed atmio's system can find, fix and report methane emissions 10x faster than today's de facto methods and is 100 percent compliant with EU methane regulations. Methane's warming punch — roughly 120x more thermal radiation absorbed than CO2 over ten years — is why UNEP calls slashing methane 'the single fastest way to tackle climate change,' and why regulators are imposing policies on suppliers who historically baked a percentage of leakage into their operations. The startup was already fundraising for its next round at the stealth exit, and investor Robin Haak of Robin Capital called methane abatement 'a low hanging fruit' with 'surprisingly underrepresented' investment.

The bet rides a dated regulatory shift: EU methane rules convert leakage operators used to price in into a compliance obligation.

The founders have done this exact sale before — Schmittmann sold gas detection startup bentekk to Draeger, and a Draeger executive angel-backed the round.

Customers were already using the product at the stealth exit, and the company claims a measurable 10x speed advantage over de facto methods.

It occupies the unglamorous micro layer of methane monitoring — ground-level repair workflow — beneath the satellite and drone players.

Regulation that turns an accepted operating loss into a liability is the strongest demand signal a compliance product can ride — especially when the founders have already sold into the same customer.

As of February 29, 2024, atmio had emerged from stealth in Hamburg with €1.3 million in pre-seed and angel funding, customers already using its find-fix-report system, and a claim of 10x faster leak detection and repair that is fully compliant with EU methane regulation. The team had built the software-hardware solution within a few months of founding and was already fundraising for its next round.