Fibersail opens Series A with Skirderf Capital, adds crowdfunding push
What's the deal? FibersailDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Porto-based startup monitoring wind turbine blades, has closed the first tranche of a Series A round led by Skirderf Capital, joined by a consortium of investors. The company also launched a crowdfunding campaign letting individual investors buy in, running until October 19.
What's the endgame? Founded in 2014 and incubated at UPTECDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the University of Porto's science and technology park, Fibersail built a platform of optical-fibre sensors embedded directly in the structure of a turbine blade. The system monitors the blade continuously, 24 hours a day.
Why now? Blades are among a turbine's most expensive and failure-prone parts, and the sector still relies largely on periodic manual inspections. Fibersail's system issues earlier alerts, cuts unplanned downtime, and extends asset life.
Operators including NaturgyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, ERGDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, NadaraDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and TotalEnergies already use the technology. The company now employs about 20 people.
"This funding gives us the means to accelerate commercial deployment, exactly when the market is looking for reliable technology solutions," said Carlos Oliveira, co-founder and a University of Porto engineering alumnus (translated from Portuguese).
What's the money for? The proceeds target commercial expansion, hardware industrialisation, and development of the analysis software. The crowdfunding campaign aims to widen participation in the energy transition to anyone wanting to become a shareholder.
The signal: As wind operators seek to lower maintenance costs and squeeze more life from ageing assets, demand is growing for predictive monitoring that replaces manual inspection — and Fibersail is betting both institutional and retail capital on that shift.
Read more: noticias.up.pt
Image credit: Jorge Lascar
