SeekOps founders Brendan Smith and Dr. Andrew Aubrey left NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to commercialize a methane sensor built for space - photographed here in spirit beside the drone that now sniffs out gas leaks over oil platforms.
Methane is invisible. It is colorless, odorless in its raw form, and traps far more heat than carbon dioxide over the near term. For decades, the oil and gas industry could only estimate how much of it was escaping from tanks, flares, valves, and offshore platforms. SeekOps was built to replace the estimate with a measurement.
Founded in 2017 by Andrew Aubrey and Brendan Smith - two scientists who had worked on instruments for NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory - the company licensed a miniature laser methane sensor and set out to commercialize it. They started in Pasadena, then moved the company to Austin, Texas, to be closer to the energy operators who needed it most.
The result is the SeekIR sensor: a lightweight, high-sensitivity detector that measures methane down to parts per billion and rides on standard enterprise drones. Paired with SeekOps' Leak Detection and Quantification (LDAQ) software, it does not just find a leak - it locates it, grades it, and puts a number on it so operators know which leaks to fix first.
That combination - space-grade spectroscopy plus autonomous flight plus rigorous reporting - has made a 25-person company in Texas a quiet fixture in the decarbonization plans of some of the largest energy firms in the world.
Reliable, accurate & timely emissions detection, quantification, and reporting.
SeekOps' LDAQ workflow turns a single drone survey into an auditable emissions dataset. The sensor is drone-agnostic by design, so it can fly on most enterprise UAVs rather than a single proprietary aircraft.
Drone-mounted SeekIR sweeps the site and streams real-time methane data to a ground station.
Algorithms attribute readings to specific sources - a valve, tank, or flare.
Emissions are graded and measured in mass-per-time, not just flagged.
Data is reconciled into figures aligned with OGMP 2.0, EPA, and EU rules.
Regulators keep raising the bar. Frameworks like OGMP 2.0, U.S. EPA rules, and the EU Methane Regulation increasingly demand measurement-based reporting rather than engineering estimates. Operators that cannot measure their emissions accurately face compliance risk, lost gas, and reputational exposure.
Offshore assets make the problem harder still - remote, windy, and dangerous for crews to survey by hand. SeekOps flies drones out to platforms that boats and people struggle to reach, delivering baseline and repeat measurements across entire fleets of assets.
SeekOps serves major and independent operators across onshore and offshore oil & gas, renewable natural gas, biogas, landfills, and utilities. Reported clients include some of the industry's largest names.
In 2023 alone, surveys performed for clients globally identified more than 420,000 tonnes of methane - roughly 12 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
A lightweight, high-sensitivity laser methane sensor derived from NASA JPL technology, measuring emissions down to parts per billion.
Field-proven Leak Detection and Quantification systems that detect, localize, grade, and quantify fugitive methane across a site.
Drone-agnostic survey campaigns onshore and offshore, delivering baseline and repeat measurements for energy, RNG, and waste assets.
Analytics that turn survey data into compliant figures aligned with OGMP 2.0, EPA rules, and the EU Methane Regulation.
SeekOps treats the sensor as its moat and the aircraft as a commodity. That decision let it scale globally through partners rather than building and operating a fleet. Competitors span aerial flyover players such as Bridger Photonics and Kairos Aerospace, satellite and continuous monitors like GHGSat and Project Canary, and traditional OGI-camera surveys - but few pair space-derived point-source sensitivity with quantification and regulator-ready reporting.
SeekOps sells drone-based detection and quantification survey campaigns plus reporting to energy, RNG, and waste operators, scaling delivery through drone-operator partners while retaining the proprietary SeekIR sensor as its core differentiator. Estimated annual revenue is around $7.2M.
The Series B was led by Schlumberger, with existing investors Equinor Ventures and OGCI Climate Investments, and new investor Caterpillar Venture Capital. Aligning incentives with the operators closest to the problem turned several of them into backers.
Aubrey and Smith spin out of NASA JPL, licensing methane-sensing technology to commercialize it.
The drone-agnostic Leak Detection and Quantification system is built around the SeekIR sensor.
Round led by Schlumberger with Equinor Ventures, OGCI, and Caterpillar closes on July 1.
Expands offshore work with Flylogix across Northern Europe and wins Oil & Gas Startup of the Year at ADIPEC.
Global surveys identify over 420,000 tonnes of methane and showcase tech at SPE Offshore Europe.
Co-founder Brendan Smith becomes CEO as SeekOps deepens OGMP 2.0 collaborations with major operators.