Well, I always suspected that a lot of economic predictions and forecasts were done from analysts who were from outer space and now its being confirmed. A four year old startup (Orbital Insight) plans to use big data analysis from satellites to check global economies. AND, the space cadet firm just raised $50M from Sequoia Capital bringing total funding to $79M. This is spooky. Satellite images looking at, say, cars in retail parking lots around the globe can plug into AI which goes into predictive analytic robots and....... WOW! Go space aliens.
(Bill Taylor/CEO)
"Orbital Insight Inc., the startup betting on using big-data analysis of satellite imagery to give investors a more accurate and timely view of the global economy, raised $50 million from U.S. and Japanese investors to bring its total funding to $78.7 million.
The Series C funding was led by Sequoia Capital, one of Silicon Valley’s top venture capital firms, and additional investors included Geodesic Capital and Japan’s Itochu Corp., Orbital said in a statement Tuesday. The four-year-old company’s valuation wasn’t disclosed.
The fresh capital will be used to expand its partnerships, increase its analytics products, and build bigger international sales operations in Europe and Asia, Orbital said. The Mountain View, California-based company founded by former NASA scientist and Google engineer James Crawford also will step up recruiting in engineering, data science and design.
Falling satellite launch costs are helping make geospatial imagery a bigger and better source for economists and investors tracking everything from China’s manufacturing to the number of cars parked outside Wal-Mart stores. Venture capital investment in space companies jumped to a record nearly $1.4 billion last year, bringing the total since 2000 to $13.3 billion, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in a report last month..."
Source: Bloomberg