argentina’s satellogic announces us$50 million in funding to shoot for the stars
Contxto – Ahoy! Good news has arrived from one of Argentina’s most sophisticated companies, Satellogic. According to recent correspondence with Contxto, the company nabbed a US$50 million round from new, as well as existing, investors. Not even Buzz Lightyear managed to reach these heights.
Satellogic, let’s remember, is the first vertically integrated geospatial analytics company. Allegedly, it is capable of delivering affordable end-to-end geoanalytics imagery at high-frequency and high-resolution. Basically, regularly updated and hyper-precise pictures of our globe.
Money out of this world
Previous backers such as China’s Tencent and Brazil’s Pitanga contributed to around 40 percent of the total amount. Some of these initial investors requested even more than their fair share of pro-rata rights for follow-on rounds.
New strategic partners join the cap table, including the Inter-American Development Bank, through its IBD Lab. Interestingly enough, IBD Lab’s contribution to the proceeds will be destined to the creation of user-end satellite imagery.
IDB Lab’s financing will be specifically directed towards the Satellogic’s development of user-end satellite imagery solutions in sectors such as agriculture, cattle farming, and natural disasters.
“We’re excited to support Satellogic’s mission of democratizing access to geospatial analytics solutions,” said Tomás Lopes Teixeira, Senior Investment Officer at IDB Lab.
Orbiting Earth, orbiting the market
Only a couple of months ago, the company closed a US$38 million deal with ABDAS, a Chinese data science company. Equipped with access to a dedicated satellite constellation provided by Satellogic, it will be able to map in monthly updated images the current status of its territory in the Chinese province of Henan. This will result in the support of key policy decisions while outsourcing both logistics and operational risks through accurate, regular data.
“Satellogic is experiencing significant commercial momentum, and we’re grateful to have investors that want to fuel that growth and help us service the demand for our Dedicated Satellite Constellation (DSC) and Dedicated Satellite Services (DSS) solutions,” said Satellogic Founder and CEO, Emiliano Kargieman.
This spacetech company might not be your text-book Latam startup and you have no idea how good it feels to say that. In fact, the company was able to develop and hoard a great chunk of its market rapidly. A mighty feat; let’s not forget about the barriers of entry.
The company was founded in 2010. Ever since it has moved fast, developing the tech, the team, and the business model to get ahead of potential rivals. And honestly, there aren’t many of them. In fact, less than a third of the world’s nations have satellites of their own, thus limiting the availability of data necessary to run important economic and social decisions.
“Satellogic is the perfect archetype of the Pitanga portfolio,” said Fernando Reinach, Partner, Pitanga Fund.
According to a recent study, the market for geospatial analytics is worth US$19.59 billion, forecasted to increase by US$10 billion in four years. The key driver for this demand: government interest.
Forget your typical B2C and B2B. B2G is where it’s at.
-VC
