Gasera to raise $1.9M.

Gasera, a Turku, Finland-based company manufacturing air quality measurement products, announced securing EUR 1.7M ($1.9M) in capital investment. The name of the backers, a German angel investor and a Silicon Valley-based company, were not disclosed.

Gasera, founded in 2004 as a university spin-off of the University of Turku by Jyrki Kauppinen and his son Ismo Kauppinen (CEO), makes products providing industry and manufacturing facilities real-time, on-site data on emissions without the need for laboratory analyses.

In 2016 Gasera launched Gasera One, a portable photoacoustic multi-gas analyzer for protecting life, health and security. The product utilises several different infrared light source technologies, such as widely tunable quantum cascade lasers (QCLs), enables countless application areas for reliable ppb-level trace gas monitoring, such as VOCs, inorganics, hydrocarbons, fluorocarbons, anesthetics, and corrosives at very low concentrations. Gasera also offers photoacoustic accessories for laboratory FTIR instruments and research photoacoustic detectors.

Gasera is currently experiencing its strongest growth in Asia, where air pollution is a major health issue.

Prior to this, in 2015, the EU Horizon 2020 program provided EUR 2.3 million in funding to Gasera to develop and commercialize a portable device for detecting indoor toxic substances, drugs, explosives and human smuggling of containers.

Other investors include Innovestor, as in 2016 it acquired a majority stake in Seed Fund Vera, initial backer of Gasera.