Japanese insurance giant Sompo partners with Israeli startup Momentic Momentick will work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Japanese energy production sources, drilling rigs and gas pipelines. Momentick has developed a solution to identify and measure greenhouse gas emissions through satellite imagery.
The Japanese government is interested in regulating its policy in this area, among other things, regarding Japanese-owned drilling rigs and gas pipelines located outside Japanese waters. Sompo, one of Japan’s three largest insurance companies, which is seeking to cooperate with Israeli technology companies, will use Momentec’s technology, which could also become part of Sompo’s risk management services.
In 2018, Sompo established its innovation center in Tel Aviv (it has two others in Tokyo and Silicon Valley), headed by Yinon Dolev. The center leads business collaborations with Israeli startups, and the current collaboration begins with Momentic, in collaboration with Sompo’s business unit.
Sompo has already partnered with Momentec, and the two companies are currently demonstrating the Israeli company’s technology, demonstrating that Momentec can detect methane emissions, a greenhouse gas, from satellite imagery. Momentec demonstrated its ability to provide accurate analysis after comparing it with an active sensor on board an American organization called Carbon Mapper, which surveyed specific areas in the central United States. It turned out that the Israeli company reached the same results as Carbon Mapper.
In this demonstration, Momentick analyzed the amount and location of methane in the atmosphere using software that uses hyperspectral analysis and algorithms based on satellite imagery. The results and insights will be provided to Sompo and its affiliate Sompo Risk Management, which will jointly explore the possibility of technical verification, service provision and insurance product development. For technical verification, data obtained from the Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Satellite (GOSAT), the world’s first satellite dedicated to monitoring carbon dioxide and methane concentrations from space, will also be used. Data analysis will be conducted in collaboration with the Climate Change Monitoring Research Strategy Office of the Ministry of the Environment and the Satellite Monitoring Center of the National Institute for Environmental Studies of Japan. Sompo may also provide Momentick services as part of its group risk management services (Sompo Risk Management).
Momentick was founded in 2020 by Daniel Kashmir (CEO), Lev Oren (COO), and Ofir Almog (Chief Scientist). The company has developed a solution that provides accurate, autonomous capabilities to identify and measure methane and other greenhouse gas emissions. The company uses purchased satellite imagery, and based on that, it has the expertise to accurately locate and quantify greenhouse gas emissions, without having to own its own satellites. The company currently has the ability to detect methane, and expects to be able to detect carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions within a year.
The company offers three main services: first, close monitoring of specific facilities/assets (such as factories or rigs); second, monitoring of large areas (such as large areas or long pipelines); and third, monitoring of corporate emissions in order to provide them with ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) data. The company’s goal is to provide an intelligent platform for emissions analysis primarily for the energy industry, waste management companies, financial companies and insurance companies.
Momentick has so far raised $7 million in seed funding. Investors in the company include Japanese venture capital fund Chartered Group Japan and Tel Aviv University’s venture capital fund, TAU Ventures.
“We are very pleased to lead this partnership between Sompo in Japan and Momentick in Israel,” said Yinon Dolev, CEO of Sompo Digital Lab in Israel. “We see this partnership as creating value in areas that impact the environment, in a way that complements our insurance policies. Japan’s joining the global fight against greenhouse gas emissions also creates an opportunity for significant investments in technologies that support the fight to improve the quality of the environment and the fight against global warming. I am confident that the Japanese market will find that there are a good number of Israeli technology companies that will be able to help them in this process.”
This article was published in Globes, Israeli Business News – en.globes.co.il – on July 2, 2024.
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