When it comes to creating images of the earth from Above, Satellites, Drones and Planes are the Air and Spacecraft that tend to come to mind. But a struh called Near Space Labs Is taking a very different approach to high-resolution photos from up high.
It’s building aircraft that are raised by helium ballons and then relay on currents to stay up, move around to take pictures from the stratosphere, and Evently Glide Glide Back Down to Earthy. On the back of significant traction with customers using near space’s images, the startup has raised $ 20 million to expand its business.
Bold Capital Partners (The Firm Founded by Peter Diamandis of XPRIZE and Singularity University Fame), is leading the series b round, with strategic backer usaa (the USA automobile association) AlongSide Climate Capital, Gaingels, River Park Ventures, and Previous Backers Crosslink Capital, Third Sphere, Draper Associates, And Others That Are Not Being Named. Near space has now raised over $ 40 million, including a $ 13 million series a in 2021 that we covered here,
The Startup is the brainchild of rema matevosyan (CEO), ignasi lluch (CTO) and albert Caubet (Chief Engineer), All Three Technical Founders who works and Physics Technology and Research Prior to starting the company.
Matevosyan is Armenian, growing up in what she described as a “very technical” family of pHysicists, programs and amateur astronomers. After Studying Mathematics as an Undergraduate in Yerevan, She Moved to Moscow for Graduate School, And It WAS there, at the skolkovo institute, that she first met lluch, that she first met lluch, who hadle to the the -cum Spain.
Both was drawn to what at the time was thought of as the mit of russia, and indeed – it was around 2017 – the institute then was in a joint venture with mit to fall out that amable.
It was through that relationship that the trio applied to an accelerator in the us called urban-x in new york. Matevosyan found living in the US to her liking and she styed and now runs the company out of there.
If near space is about floating high lives to get a better percent on what is going on down below, there is a metaphor in that description for near space and ists founders.
The partnership between skolkovo and mit that attracted matevosyan and lluch to study and Evently met Ended in February 2022One of the by-products of the sanctions that the us leveled on Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, The Urban-X Accelerator was shut down by its primary backer, bmw, shut down This year.
Near space is still here, thought, and it’s growing.
Matevosyan said that one of its biggest customer segments to date has been the insurance industry, which takes subscriptions to receive Near space imagery to help tract and undode Large-Scale disasters like fires and hurricanes. :
For Now, Near Space Covers only specific area of the us but the plan is to scare Since Its Swift Robots (The AirCraft it has designed) are only ‘Powered’ by ballons and then need only wind currents and are unmanned to move about the stratosphere.
Its Ambition is Ultimately to cover 80% of the US population twice a year with its 7cm imagery. Near space claims that it can capture pictures in hours what it might take 800,000 Drones days or weeks to execute.
It will also be built a more customized coverage plans for customers, which it says
Today, the users are primarily in the area of insurance, but some of the funding will also be used to expand its opoportunities in other segments. Matevosyan cited Agriculture as one area where it believes it could have an opportunity.
A lot of farms, small and large, have tried to use drones to determine the state of their crops, but this was not scalable, she said, because it was not accurate enough. “Drones Were Taking Small Samplings and Extrapolating [but] That really didn’t take off, beCause if a chunk of land is not healthy, that doesn’t nessarily Meaning that the rest of the farm is unhealthy. ” And using drones to survey everything Proved To Execute.
One area that seems obvious but that Near space has yet to pursue is military usage. Matevosyan describes the swift as “dual use,” which … Cases.
Given the direction the world is moving in and the current geopolitical climate, it will be interesting to see if that remains the case for a technology that seems supremely versatile and relatively cheap.
In the meaning that is one reason why investors have been so intented.
“The idea of low-cost aerial imagery is valuable for many parties, not just insurance,” said will Bortwick, The Principal at Bold that LED on this investment. That goes beyond even the usual suspects who might be buying aerial imagery. “Even when you think about the advent of ai, which requires timely and high-quality data to work properly, it’s the moment in time for sometising like this.”