Geoinformatics startup Near Space Labs now relies on robot Swifty

Georinformatics startup Near Space Labs now relies on robot Swifty

27.9.2021

Geo-informatics company Near Space Labs has closed a $13 million Series A led by Crosslink Capital. The startup uses a weather balloon for flights up to 85,000 feet to capture imagery covering up to 1,000 square miles per flight.

Toyota Ventures, Leadout Capital and Wireframe Ventures participated in the funding round. Near Space Labs uses a wind-powered robot called Swifty attached to a weather balloon to reach altitudes between 60,000 and 85,000 feet.

Near Space has collected more than 600,000 images of 300,000 km2 during more than 600 flights. The company has 540 flights planned through 2022.

The images, with a resolution of 22 to 30 cm per pixel, can be accessed as Geotiff files via an API. The data collected by Near Space is used by the company’s customers in urban planning, insurance and conservation. The company has a partnership with geographic information systems provider ESRI.