Interview with BTUAlumni Startup Seqana (ERM)

We already did an alumni interview with Jakob Levin of Seqana earlier this year about his interesting startup with two other ERM graduates, Stefan Gönner and Julian Kremers. Their company analyzes satellite imagery to quantify atmospheric carbon sequestration in soils. At the time, their startup was still called CQuest. In the meantime, not only the name but also many other things have changed and evolved. So it's time for an update interview.

Hi Jakob, first to the obvious. You changed your name, how did that come about?

As a founder, the main thing is to stay flexible. We thought CQuest was a great name, but it wasn't internationally defensible. We are excited about our new name and branding. You can now find us at the new website seqana.com.

Please give us an update on what else has been going on with you guys this year?
Everything is going exceedingly well and we are excited about the investments and progress. In January, we started our journey with the BTU and our first funding through EXIST. This gave us the opportunity to test some hypotheses and build prototypes of our satellite analytics. We have conducted pilot projects in North and South America and are excited about the progress we are making in measuring soil organic carbon using satellite imagery. In August of this year, we completed a major pre-seed investment round to hire additional employees and expand our development potential. This round was led by Australian investors Regen Ventures and German Agile Partners. This funding also enabled us to launch a paid pilot project with a major agribank, which is currently underway. Over the summer, we also applied to the European Innovation Commission (EIC) for funding. Last week, we were notified that we were one of the few teams selected to receive a €2.4 million grant. Our success at the EIC was announced this Thursday by Commissioner Gabriel.

What's next for you guys?
We need reinforcements in the team in a timely manner and have advertised a few positions that can be found on our website, these include a Data Scientist, DevOps Engineer and Internship as a Business Development Student Assistant. Of course, we welcome applications from BTU students and BTU alumni. On a side note, we are currently moving into our new offices in Berlin near Südkreuz, so we have now moved out of our Corona-conditioned home office. We are also happy to announce that we have been nominated for the Innovation Award Berlin Brandenburg 2021 and are among the 10 finalists! Keep your fingers crossed for us. We also have a major communication campaign coming up, so you'll be hearing more from us soon.