Contxto – One of the startups I enjoy covering the most is Satellogic. This time, the Argentine business signed a new agreement with ABDAS, a Chinese data science. Through this coalition, Satellogic will provide an entire satellite fleet for geospatial analytics in China’s Henan Province.
According to a press release, the high-resolution data gathered will allow the Chinese government to improve its decision making.
Who is ABDAS?
ABDAS is a data science company from China. It provides remote monitoring, visual identification, data mining and other holistic processes for various industries. These include agriculture, insurance, government supervision, in addition to traditional Chinese medicine.
The company and Satellogic agreed to this project valued at approximately US$38 million. This way, ABDAS will get access to a full fleet of satellites from Satellogic. Moving forward, they will provide monthly data and remapping features including multispectral images from interest sites in Henan Province.
More satellites will eventually be launched and added to orbit, some exclusively for ABDAS. Such as partnership will give ABDAS full access to Satellogic’s image capturing platform. Moreover, the Chinese firm will have access to the private cloud for processing, categorizing and storing these images.
“The Henan government’s commitment to innovation in space technology and development for the competitiveness of its industry serves as a source of inspiration,” said Emiliano Kargieman, CEO of Satellogic.
“We are honored to partner with ABDAS to build a turn-key infrastructure for the collection and analysis of data obtained from Earth observation, with the ability to strengthen and support key political decisions in the province.”
The plan is for ABDAS to fully operate these satellites. While the Chinese company can use the information and analysis reported by Satellogic itself, it can still use its own image analysis, though.
“With the development of new technological capabilities, we seek to promote innovation with the objective of satisfying key needs. Satellogics is a good ally to offer reliable images of remote detection,” said Mr. Liu Hui, ABDAS’ CEO.
“We hope to undertake integral cooperation with Satellogic in many areas, such as satellite development, reception in Earth, and big data applications.”
Satellite competition
Nowadays, less than a third of countries have deployed their own satellites orbiting the Earth. This obviously diminishes the course of action due to limited infrastructure and policies.
Based on this, Satellogic has basically provided Henan Province with the analysis and deployment of geospatial information. As a result, huge capital investments or technical and operative risks won’t be necessary.
Satellogic’s data science team offers planet-wide solutions thanks to its sophisticated computer vision. The Agriculture, forestry, energy, finance and insurance industries can all benefit from this aerial view data.
Using its satellite constellations orbiting Earth, Satellogic can remap the entire planet on a weekly basis. The results are very high-depth since images are captured at close range. In turn, this technology reduces the cost of high-frequency geospatial analysis.
Founded in 2010, it currently has a team of over 170 engineers, AI experts and data scientists. Thanks to these detailed images, Satellogic guides governments and companies in tackling Earth’s mightiest issues.
Proudly Argentine, it also has an assembly and testing facility in Uruguay, a data analysis center in Barcelona, a product development team in Tel Aviv, as well as two business development offices in Miami and Beijing.
So spread out, Satellogic certainly exemplifies remote work methodology.
-VC
