There have been a lot of recent developments in the usually quiet corner of the EO sector: Platforms.
EO space situational awareness firm Privateer Space pivoted and bought major EO platform player Orbital Insight, while EO platform Descartes Labs was acquired by vertically integrated EO company EarthDaily. Meanwhile, Planet launched its Insights Platform following the acquisition of Sinergise (Sentinel Hub) and Saudi Arabia's Neo Space Group acquired EO platform company UP42.
We also saw startups like Danti, an EO data search engine, Fused, a serverless EO processing and visualisation platform and Whereobots, a geospatial processing platform raise funding.
However, EO platforms have never really taken off for several reasons that I dig into in the essay. In the latest, deep-dive on TerraWatch Space, we look at the state of EO platforms, what has happened so far, why platforms have not taken off and where we are going.
In the piece, I classify the EO Platforms segment into five segments (shown below) and try to demystify the term ‘platforms.’ We get deeper into identifying the roles of EO platforms, understanding the current market landscape and assessing which providers are solving problems such as accessibility, usability and usability.
I also answer some critical questions for the EO market such as:
- Why is Platforms the most overlooked segment in the EO market?
- Who are the major EO platform providers in the market and where are they positioned?
- Why haven't EO platforms taken off and what is the outlook for this segment?
- Will we have a horizontal platform that is data-agnostic, sensor-agnostic and enables the pre-processing, processing & visualisation of EO data?
- Why the future might be vertical-focused, specialised platforms that are built for a purpose, focused on specific sectors or a set of use cases (instead of horizontal, all-purpose versions), built and managed by independent, non-profit entities?
➡️ Read the full piece: https://lnkd.in/e4QewQP9
