Canadian space technology startup SkyWatch secures $7.5M Series A to make satellite data easily accessible
Nickie Louise
Posted On January 7, 2020
We first wrote about SkyWatch back in February 2018 when the Canadian space technology startup raised $3.2 million to bring satellite data to the mass market. Since then the company has witnessed massive growth and saw its roster of clients grow more than 10x, highlighting the appetite for Earth Observation data from the private sector.
The market for Earth Observation satellite data and services is projected to represent a $56B cumulative revenue opportunity over the next 10 years, growing to $7.2B annually in 2028 (source: NSR). Arguably, the largest hurdle in achieving this potential is reaching new, non-traditional customers in the private sector.
Today, SkyWatch announced today it has secured $7.5 million ($10M CAD) Series A round of financing to provide companies with affordable and reliable access to satellite data. The round was led by Bullpen Capital, with participation from existing investors, Space Capital, Golden Ventures, Techstars Ventures, SK Ventures, and Angel Round Capital, and new investors BDC Industrial, Clean, and Energy Technology Venture Fund.
Founded in the summer of 2014 by Dexter Jagula, James Slifierz and Roland Sing, SkyWatch provides a digital infrastructure for the distribution of Earth observation data and derived intelligence providing application developers with a single access point to the world’s best Earth observation data and advanced processing algorithms. SkyWatch EarthCache is a cloud-based platform with comprehensive APIs to facilitate machine-to-machine integration, informative dashboards to monitor usage, and an easy-to-use code builder to rapidly develop associated applications. Adopting EarthCache into customers’ development environment eliminates the need for multiple integration points, legal contracts, pricing and payment models, and costly multi-point searches. Instead, EarthCache allows the development teams to focus on the business application and in delivering actionable intelligence to the end-user.
“SkyWatch is a special satellite company which should broaden the market for satellite images by making it easy and fast to schedule image capture,” said Duncan Davidson, General Partner at Bullpen Capital.
“Over the past couple of years, SkyWatch built key enabling technologies for the future of Earth Observation capture and distribution. Today, we are excited to announce that we’ll be able to commercialize and scale that technology globally, thanks to the closing of our Series A financing,” said James Slifierz, SkyWatch’s CEO and co-founder. “We’re excited to have Bullpen Capital and BDC, two firms with deep experience in scaling technology companies, join the SkyWatch team. We’re also happy to have the support from our earliest investors who continue to believe in our ambitions to change the Earth Observation industry.”
“Our platform EarthCache™ enables application developers to programmatically integrate satellite imagery into any software application with an industry-leading user experience. We will soon surpass 100 customers building applications across more than a dozen unique industries. This new round of financing will enable us to accelerate and grow past 1,000 customers over the next 12 months, while continuing to develop partnerships with the world’s leading satellite operators.”
“We’re also excited to publicly announce the launch of TerraStream™. Our newest product will provide any company launching a satellite with an integrated data storage, cataloging, ordering, processing, and delivery solution, allowing them to serve customers faster, with less operational and financial risk. With this new injection of capital into the business, SkyWatch will strengthen its global partnership program, helping us support more than a dozen partners who will use TerraStream in the coming years to distribute their satellite data to the world.”
“These two products together are shaping the future of Earth Observation,” continued Slifierz. “We feel incredibly lucky to be building our vision of the future right here in Waterloo, Canada, one of the most vibrant technology hubs in the world and an important ecosystem within Canada’s space technology landscape.”
