Italian stratospheric balloon technology company Involve has closed a €2.5 million Seed round after 30 successful commercial launches and extensive testing.
Involve uses advanced stratospheric pseudo-satellite platforms and intelligent software, monitoring everything that moves at human speed, providing real-time, high-resolution data that is essential for environmental protection, natural resource management, and infrastructure security.
With the closing of this round, Involve is welcoming Alastair Westgarth, former CEO of Google's Project Loon, to its executive Board of Directors and astronaut Paolo Nespoli to its Advisory Board.
Earlybird Venture Capital led the investment, which was supported by Takeoff, Unicredit, Fondazione CRT, Plug and Play, and TLI Space.
The round is supplemented by €500,000 in convertible loans.
This funding round represents a major milestone for Involve, which also became the first Italian startup chosen by Earlybird-X.
Earlybird-X partner Dr. Philipp Semmer says:
"We are excited to partner with Jonathan, Claudio and the entire Involve team in building the next generation of high-altitude balloon platforms.
The team convinced us with their execution capabilities of gathering substantial initial traction with very little capital.
Additionally, they were able to attract some of the leading heads in the space, such as Alastair Westgarth. Involve will define a new category of earth observation technology, and we are happy to be part of the journey, alongside CDP and TLI Space."
Involve will use the funds to accelerate the development of its stratospheric balloon technology to achieve several technical milestones. These include enhancing flight duration, optimizing control systems through artificial intelligence, and expanding payload capacity. The company also plans to grow its team with new hires in key areas such as aerospace.
"Our next step should be somewhere near Houston, USA," Polotto says.
"Here, for more than a month, I had the opportunity to develop contacts and do quite a bit of networking. This will be, very soon, our next step, thanks to our board member Alastair Westgarth and business developer Courtney Stadd, former Deputy Associate Administrator at NASA and ex-Director of Commercial Space at The White House."
Lead image from left to right: Jonathan Polotto ( Involve ounder, CEO, BoD President) and Claudio Piazzai (Involve COO). Photo: uncredited.
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