Spoor Receives €8 Million Funding to Meet Growing Demand for Bird Protection in Wind Industry

Spoor, a startup based in Oslo, is utilizing AI technology to assist wind farms in monitoring and safeguarding wildlife. The company recently announced that it has successfully secured an impressive €8 million in Series A funding to support its expansion on a global scale and to hire new talent.

The funding round was led by SET Ventures, a European EnergyTech VC, with additional contributions from EnBW New Ventures, Ørsted Ventures, and Superorganism. Spoor also has strong backing from prominent Nordic investors like Futurum Ventures and the state-owned climate fund Nysnø.

CEO of Spoor, Ask Helseth, expressed, “Our technology has now reached a level where it can offer the accuracy and reliability that wind developers have been eagerly anticipating,“

In the year 2025, investments in AI-driven biodiversity and wildlife-monitoring technologies in Europe have been consistent. NatureMetrics in the UK secured €24.3 million to enhance its eDNA-based biodiversity monitoring platform, while Flox in Sweden raised around €1 million for its AI tools aimed at mitigating human-wildlife conflicts.

With this context in mind, Spoor’s Series A funding of €8 million places the Norwegian company in a rapidly developing niche where AI is increasingly utilized for environmental compliance and ecosystem intelligence.

Collectively, the investments in 2025 amount to approximately €33 million, showcasing a sustained investor interest in solutions that cater to both the growth of climate infrastructure and the protection of biodiversity.

Helseth further added, “Developers already incorporate Spoor seamlessly into their operations, and this funding enables us to expand our team and enhance our integrations with wind farm control systems. The industry is transitioning towards 24/7, data-driven intelligent wildlife protection, and we are prepared to support that transition on a global scale,“

Established in 2020 by Ask Helseth and CTO Helge Reikerås, Spoor specializes in real-time bird and bat monitoring software for wind developers and operators. Their patented computer vision models, with a database of over 1 million bird observations, seamlessly integrate into wind farm control systems to detect, classify, and track birds down to the exact species from long distances.

Unlike expensive proprietary hardware installations, Spoor’s technology uses a small number of off-the-shelf cameras, enabling faster and more cost-effective deployments. With detection ranges surpassing conventional systems, Spoor’s technology can monitor significantly more airspace per camera, facilitating swift and economical deployment across wind farms.

This scaling effort comes at a crucial juncture for the wind industry, as evidenced by data provided by the company projecting the installed wind capacity to reach 2.1 TW by 2030, with around 810,000 new turbines. Additionally, several countries have mandated continuous wildlife monitoring for wind farms in the past five years, with Mitigation and Shutdown on Demand (SDoD) regulations becoming standard in markets like Germany, Poland, Spain, and much of the USA.

Spoor currently holds contracts in both pre- and post-construction phases with major industry players like Ørsted, RWE, Vattenfall, TotalEnergies, Equinor, GE, and Fugro.

Julia Padberg, a Partner at SET Ventures, noted, “We already observe that Spoor’s digital, software-driven solution is replacing manual processes, as well as expensive radar systems and high-end proprietary (thermal) camera installations that are prevalent today. With contracts spanning the entire project lifecycle with over 20 top-tier clients, it is evident that Spoor has gained significant trust. We are excited to support the company in further scaling,“

As Spoor transitions from initial deployments to long-term post-construction agreements, biodiversity regulation is becoming more of a norm rather than an afterthought.

With the global wind capacity set to double by 2030, developers face increasing pressure to deliver clean energy while complying with stringent biodiversity regulations. However, many lack precise, continuous, and cost-effective monitoring tools. This is where Spoor aims to establish itself as a key player.

Anke Gratz, Investment Manager at EnBW New Ventures, shared, “Bird monitoring poses a significant challenge for wind farm developers and operators and is mandated by regulations in many markets, from permitting to operation. Spoor’s solution stands out through AI-driven data analysis, leveraging a vast database of over 200,000 hours of video footage to train highly accurate models, and is easy to deploy with off-the-shelf cameras. We are thrilled to support Spoor in developing products that assist the wind industry in balancing clean energy generation with biodiversity preservation,“

With this funding, the 22-member team at Spoor is poised for substantial expansion, with new hires planned across sales, engineering, and deployment to bolster product development and delivery capabilities.

Helseth concluded, “This marks a new chapter for Spoor. We are transitioning from early-stage projects to long-term partnerships with some of the leading wind developers globally. Our focus now is on responsible scaling, team reinforcement, deeper integrations, and delivering on the trust our customers have placed in us,“

Spoor was also featured in our 2022 article highlighting 10 super promising Norwegian startups to watch in 2022 and beyond.