When it comes to creating images of Earth from above, satellites, drones, planes and spacecraft tend to come to mind. But a startup called Space Lab nearby takes a very different approach to taking high-resolution photos from Up High.
A nearby Space Lab builds an aircraft raised by helium balloons, then relies on air currents to get up, taking photos from the stratosphere, and eventually slipping back to Earth. Behind the vast traction with customers using images, the startup has now raised $20 million to expand its business.
Bold Capital Partners (VC company founded by Peter Diamandis of Xprize and Singularity University fame) leads the Series B round. Strategic backer USAA (American Automobile Association) is investing alongside climate capital, Gaingel, River Park Ventures, and previous backers, Crosslink Capital, Third Spy, Draper Associates and other unnamed backers. Space Lab is currently raising more than $40 million, including the $13 million Series A for 2021.
The startup was the brainchild of Lema Mathebosian (CEO), Ignasilf (CTO) and Albert Keve (Chief Engineer).
Matevosyan was Armenian and grew up in what he described as a “very technical” family of physicists, programmers and amateur astronomers. After studying mathematics as an undergraduate at Yerevan, she moved to Moscow for graduate school. There, I first met Lluch, who came to study from Spain, at the Scorcovo Institute.
Both were drawn to what was considered Russian MIT at the time. In fact, it was around 2017, and the institute was in a joint venture with MIT to fill its ambitions.
Through that relationship, the trio was applied to an accelerator called the Urban X in New York. Matevosyan has found to live in the US to her tastes, and she now runs the company from there.
The nearby universe floating on Earth has a comparative phor in its description for the nearby universe and its founder to get a better perspective on what is happening below.
The partnership between Skolkovo Institute and MIT ended in February 2022. This is one byproduct of the sanctions that the US levelled against Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Urban-X Accelerator was closed by BMW, the leading supporter of the year.
But it’s still here and growing near the space.
Matevosyan said one of the startup’s biggest customer segments to date is the insurance industry, and he subscribes to images near Space to track and understand the impact of large-scale disasters, such as fires and hurricanes. (USAA is a leading insurance company and financial service provider, along with other activities for military, veterans, and their families’ drivers.)
For now, the area near space only covers certain regions of the United States, but we plan to scale it up. Matevosyan said it can be done relatively easily as the company does not require a special license to fly. Its rapid aircraft is “driven” by balloons, requiring only wind flow, allowing the stratosphere to move around unmanned.
The startup ultimately aims to cover 80% of the US population twice a year. The nearby space claims it can do in hours that could take 800,000 drone days or weeks to run.
The company will also be building more customized coverage plans for its customers. It says this will be tailored to the end-user operations.
Today, those users are primarily in the insurance sector, but some of the funds are also used to explore opportunities in other segments. Matevosyan cited agriculture as a region where startups can have opportunities.
Many farms, large and small, tried to use drones to determine the condition of their crops, but this was not scalable as it was not accurate enough. “The drone took small samples and extrapolated them, but that didn’t actually take off because if the mass of land is not healthy, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the rest of the farm is unhealthy.” It has proven impossible to investigate everything using drones, but satellites cannot provide customers with sufficient resolution for the right costs.
Military use is one area that seems like an obvious use case, but near the space has yet to pursue the opportunity. Matevosyan describes Swift as “double use” and can include a limited amount of payload. However, she said the company has not yet pursued anything other than commercial use cases.
Given the direction in which the world is moving and the geopolitical climate, it will be interesting to see whether it remains a case of technology that appears to be very versatile and relatively inexpensive.
Still, its versatility is one of the reasons investors are so interested.
“The idea of low-cost aerial imaging is valuable not only for insurance, but for many stakeholders,” said Will Borthwick, principal at Bold, who led the investment. “It’s such a timely moment, even considering the emergence of AI that requires timely, high quality data to function properly.”