The software start-up LiveEO, which enables companies to analyse satellite images, has raised capital in a new financing round. The Series B funding raised 25 million euros, the company, which was founded in 2018, announced in Berlin on 25 June. The leading investors were the Japanese-Northern European venture capital company Nordic Ninja and the German government's Deep Tech & Climate Fonds (DTCF). In total, the company has already received almost 52 million euros from investors.

LiveEO buys satellite data from private and public satellite operators and analyses it using an AI-supported software tool. The abbreviation EO stands for Earth Observation. The company's initial focus was on the infrastructure sector, where the start-up aims to help rail network operators such as Deutsche Bahn with vegetation management and hazard detection along railway lines.

However, with the European Union's endeavours to curb the global clearing of forest areas for the extraction of raw materials, LiveEO's potential customer base and, therefore also its product range has expanded. For example, customers who trade in raw materials can now use satellite image analyses to check whether or not deforestation has occurred in their suppliers' cultivation areas. For example if deforestation has occurred in the cultivation of products such as palm oil, wood or coffee after 31 December 2020, these products may no longer be imported into the EU under a new regulation.

However, the EU Deforestation Regulation, which came into force a year ago and is accompanied by reporting obligations for companies, has been criticised overseas. In a letter to the EU Commission at the end of May, the US government led by President Joe Biden called for the regulation to be postponed as it would harm US companies.

US timber traders are already considering cancelling export contracts with the EU, as they claim to be technically unable to prove a deforestation-free supply chain. In addition to the timber industry, the US paper and pulp industry is also severely affected by the regulation. The signatories of the letter, including US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, US Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, describe the new documentation requirements as „impractical“. They would unnecessarily restrict trade in products from low-risk countries such as the USA.

Other trading partners such as Indonesia and Malaysia, which are among the most crucial palm oil suppliers in the world, have also already urged the EU to postpone the regulation. Even within the EU, these demands are being made – above all by the EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, and the EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski. The regulation provides for a transitional period of 18 months for large companies. Small companies will be given 24 months.

As co-founder and co-CEO of LiveEO, Daniel Seidel considers the arguments over the technical hurdles in proving deforestation-free supply chains to be a pretext. „The solutions are there,“ he says. „US producers should all have access to the internet, smartphones and computers.“ According to LiveEO, the financial burden also lies with the buyers and not with the small farmers. All they have to do is record the geodata of their land or have it recorded.

Even if the regulation is delayed, Seidel does not expect it to have a major impact on his business, at least not in the long term. „A delay does not mean that companies can now take more time with geolocalisation – because they are already late, and there will be penalties either way,“ he says.

The start-up now wants to use the newly raised funds to expand its sales team. According to Seidel, LiveEO's turnover tripled last year and should be in the „double-digit million range“ by the end of 2024. The start-up also aims to break even in two years.