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Orbital Insight is a
Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...
-based geospatial analytics company. The company analyzes satellite, drone, balloon and other
unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...
images, including cell phone geolocation data, to study a range of human activity, and provides business and other strategic insights from the data. James Crawford is the company's founder and chief executive officer.


History

Orbital Insight was founded in 2013 by James Crawford, who earlier worked with artificial intelligence systems at
Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...
, with
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and with
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
's
Mars rover A Mars rover is a remote-controlled motor vehicle designed to travel on the surface of Mars. Rovers have several advantages over stationary landers: they examine more territory, they can be directed to interesting features, they can place them ...
project. Crawford saw an opportunity to combine commercial and government satellite images with government image sets. The company's first project was analyzing the health of corn crops. In 2015, the company partnered with the
World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...
to improve its poverty data, using building height and rooftop material analysis to approximate wealth. In 2016, the US intelligence committee's research arm, In-Q-Tel, and Google Ventures (GV), along with
CME Group CME Group Inc. is an American financial services company based in Chicago that operates financial derivatives exchanges including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade, New York Mercantile Exchange, and the Commodity Exchange. ...
's investment arm CME Ventures, invested in the company, joining previous investors
Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California, specializing in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. the firm had appro ...
,
Lux Capital Lux Capital is a venture capital firm based in New York City. It was founded in 2000, and focuses on investments in emerging technologies. History Lux Capital was founded in 2000 by Peter Hébert, Robert Paull and Josh Wolfe. In April 2011, for ...
and
Bloomberg Beta Bloomberg Beta is an early stage venture capital firm with $450M under management, capitalized solely by Bloomberg. The fund exists to expand Bloomberg's horizons by investing in companies built by extraordinary founders that are creating profoun ...
. In May 2017, the company closed a $50M million series C round from
Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California, specializing in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. the firm had appro ...
, making it reportedly one of the most capitalized companies in the geospatial analytics industry. In October, it was reported that Orbital Insight was working with the US Department of Defense's
Defense Innovation Unit The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), also called Unit X, is a United States Department of Defense (DoD) organization founded to help the U.S. military make faster use of emerging commercial technologies. Launched in 2015, the organization has been c ...
(DIU) group to develop and apply advanced algorithms to extract insights from images obtained using prototype commercial
Synthetic Aperture Radar Synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) is a form of radar that is used to create two-dimensional images or 3D reconstruction, three-dimensional reconstructions of objects, such as landscapes. SAR uses the motion of the radar antenna over a target regi ...
(SAR) microsatellites. One goal was to improve imagery applications in poor weather or lighting conditions, for better identification of natural and manmade threats. In October, Orbital Insight partnered with commercial space imagery company
DigitalGlobe DigitalGlobe was an American commercial vendor of space imagery and geospatial content, and operator of civilian remote sensing spacecraft. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange on 14 May 2009, selling 14.7 million shares at U ...
to extract insights from DigitalGlobe's satellite imagery. In June 2018, Orbital Insight partnered with e-GEOS, S.p.A., a joint venture between European spaceflight services company
Telespazio Telespazio Spa is a European spaceflight services company founded in 1961. It is a joint venture owned by Leonardo (67%) and Thales Group (33%) headquartered in Rome. Telespazio provides services that include the design and development of space ...
and the
Italian Space Agency The Italian Space Agency (; ASI) is a government agency established in 1988 to fund, regulate and coordinate space exploration activities in Italy. The agency cooperates with numerous national and international entities who are active in aerospac ...
(ASI), to provide emergency flood mapping services to the U.S. government. In July, financial technology and media company
Bloomberg L.P. Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately-held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, with Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Ze ...
began using Orbital Insight's geospatial vendor analysis including car counts at over 80 retailers, as part of Bloomberg's traditional client data. In September, Orbital Insight partnered with aerospace company
Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...
to build a suite of geospatial analytics and tools as part of Airbus' OneAtlas program. Also in September, the company acquired Boston-based FeatureX, a company that specialized in applying computer vision to satellite images in order to extract information. Also in September, Orbital Insight partnered with
Royal Bank of Canada Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; ) is a Canadian multinational Financial institution, financial services company and the Big Five (banks), largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 20 million clients and has more than ...
's RBC Capital Markets arm to use geospatial imagery to predict trends in energy, mining, and location intelligence fields. Also in September, the company extended a partnership with earth imaging company
Planet Labs Planet Labs PBC (formerly Planet Labs, Inc. and Cosmogia, Inc.) is a publicly traded American Earth imaging company based in San Francisco, California. Their goal is to image the entirety of the Earth daily to monitor changes and pinpoint tren ...
(Planet), allowing Orbital to use Planet's PlanetScope imagery and high resolution SkySat imagery of Earth. In May 2019, the company released Orbital Insight GO, an application designed to allow customers to search satellite imagery and geolocation information on their own, and analyze the images and data for insights. Also in May, Orbital Insight announced Earth Monitor, the first product that came from its Airbus satellite imagery partnership, which was a white labeling of Orbital Insight GO with additional custom work to enable integration with Airbus' proprietary satellites and imagery purchasing web flows. Orbital Insight GO was renamed Terrascope and relaunched in late 2022. In May 2024,
Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
cofounder
Steve Wozniak Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname Woz, is an American technology entrepreneur, electrical engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, and inventor. In 1976, he co-founded Apple Inc., Apple Computer with ...
's firm Privateer Space announced its acquisition of Orbital Insight, following reporting from an independent journalist six months prior that the transaction was meant to save Orbital from bankruptcy. This will add mapping and intelligence services to Privateer's space data offerings, Privateer's chief executive officer told Reuters.


Business

Orbital Insight analyzes satellite, drone, balloon and other unmanned aerial vehicle images, along with phone geolocation data, by applying machine learning techniques with computer vision to extract information that can be used for business decisions. Images are tagged manually to assist with computer recognition. Applications of the technology include estimating retail revenue by studying car counts at malls, helping insurance companies estimate the extent of damages from natural disasters, gauging a country's fuel supply by counting oil storage facilities, and assisting with strategic defense applications for threat assessments. The company's Global Geospatial Crude Index (GCI) monitors millions of barrels of oil on a daily basis by tracking 25,000 external floating roof tanks. The shadows on the roofs can be used to predict how full the tanks are. Orbital Insight also acquires anonymized location data for smartphones, and uses the geolocation data to track various business activities, such as staffing levels at refineries and factories, to make economic predictions. Other tools include Orbital Insight GO, a self service satellite imagery and geospatial data analysis tool for customers. Clients include hedge funds trying to get information advantages to help their investors.


Operations

Orbital Insight is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The company also has US offices in Arlington, VA, and New York City, and international offices in Tokyo and London.


Financial Distress and Indonesia's State Intelligence Agency

In September and October 2023 multiple articles were published stating the company was facing significant financial difficulties. While the company raised $130 million over the years it has devalued itself to $50 million to obtain a $3 million emergency loan to avoid bankruptcy. The company seem to have secured only $500 000 of the total $3 million. Slide Decks from June 2023 have shown that there were multiple Merger and Acquisition attempts that failed. The company sees its lifeline in a project called Alpha for the Indonesian' State Intelligence Agency. It vaguely mentions multiple prospective deals with Qatar Armed Forces,
Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...
,
Armed Forces of Ukraine The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are the Military, military forces of Ukraine. All military and security forces, including the Armed Forces, are under the command of the president of Ukraine and subject to oversight by a permanent Verkhovna Rad ...
,
Armed Forces of Saudi Arabia The Saudi Arabian Armed Forces (SAAF) (), also known as the Royal Saudi Armed Forces (), is part of the military forces of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It consists of the Royal Saudi Army, the Royal Saudi Navy, the Royal Saudi Air Force, the ...
and
United Arab Emirates Armed Forces The United Arab Emirates Armed Forces () are the armed forces of the United Arab Emirates. They consist of the United Arab Emirates Army, UAE Army, United Arab Emirates Navy, UAE Navy, United Arab Emirates Air Force, UAE Air Force, United Arab E ...
.


References

{{reflist, 30em


External links


Official website
Companies based in Palo Alto, California Technology companies established in 2013 2013 establishments in California Spatial analysis Remote sensing companies American companies established in 2013