One million USD to fast-track WeGaw Climate Tech

Since the company was established in 2016, Swiss Climate tech Wegaw has begun operating in five countries, delivering impactful datasets to 15 clients and more than 30 power plants without the need for further investment in infrastructure. Moreover, Wegaw is working with government bodies and national agencies to reduce CO2 emissions and aid international efforts to attain Net Zero status.

At the moment, Wegaw is helping companies and governments around the world better understand future clean energy production opportunities that support energy market stability and reduce dependency on traditional fossil fuels.  “The current energy crisis in Europe highlights what happens if we do not have the right tools to understand future renewable energy production. Our data and economic insights are key to efficiently planning and operating renewable energy assets, as well as balancing the grid with existing assets.” Daria Lüdtke, CTO, Wegaw

Wegaw leverages machine learning, AI and geospatial algorithms to process space data and identify various characteristics such as snow, water, soil humidity or waves at different levels of technological maturity, with the aim to more accurately forecast sustainable energy output. By amalgamating data from remote sensors on satellites (from European Space Agency and NASA constellations) with daily validated ground observations and historic data for instance, bespoke datasets and insightful evaluations are generated for hydropower utilities, government agencies and energy traders.

The beauty of Wegaw’s solution is that the datasets can be scaled as required whilst offering near real-time insights with a 93% accuracy, which is unprecedented when compared to legacy meteorological model based solutions. Here are just a few snapshots that demonstrate how Wegaw presents Snow Water Equivalent data when applied to different locations: “Our vision is to enable a completely clean energy transition by delivering a clear understanding of future renewable energy production from space. We are especially proud to have attracted such an incredible line-up of international climate tech investors who support our ambitions and are thrilled to actively collaborate with forward-thinking energy companies across the globe.” Ion Padilla, CEO & Co-founder

Recognition from Katapult Climate Fund

Investors in the seed round include Bstartup (Banco Sabadell), Katapult.vc, Great Stuff Ventures and Business Angels Switzerland. Wegaw received numerous offers of up to $1.3m, however following diligent consideration, the startup selected those that most closely complemented its own values.

“Due to the proven results to date, promising aspirations and fantastic team synergy, Wegaw was specifically selected to join a small number of climate tech startups to form the very first Katapult Climate Fund. We screened more than 2700 companies to get to this point and are very proud of our investment in Wegaw as we firmly believe that the company embodies our commitment to create a thriving world for all. We are delighted to have the Wegaw team as key members of our Climate Accelerator Program, working towards a more sustainable future and addressing the UN’s development goals. Wegaw is on-track to have a truly awesome future with a positive impact across many socio-economic areas and we trust that they will continue to break boundaries.” says Nina Heir, CEO Katapult Accelerator & Katapult Climate

(Press release - ES)