Capella will use the funding, led by NightDragon, to expand its AI-enabled geospatial analytics and imaging offerings for its satellite sensors that penetrate all weather conditions — clouds, fog, smoke, rain — and capture clear imagery 24-7, day and night, across the globe
Capella Space, an Earth observation company, announced a $97M Series C financing round led by NightDragon, with significant participation from existing investors DCVC and Cota Capital. Capella plans to use the funding to expand its offerings and continue its mission to provide 24-7 access to frequent, timely and high-quality satellite analytics and imagery products to customers with demanding geospatial intelligence needs worldwide.
Capella’s SAR (synthetic aperture radar) sensors are deployed across its seven satellites in orbit today, with more satellites ready to launch across 2022 and 2023. This constellation can penetrate all weather conditions — clouds, fog, smoke, rain — and capture clear imagery 24-7, day and night, providing unparalleled insight into what is happening anywhere on the globe at any given moment. Recent global events in Ukraine and Russia have shown that access to accurate and timely Earth observation data has never been more critical.
Across defense and intelligence agencies, shipping and supply chain organizations and other industries, decision-makers need to quickly know what is happening on the ground to make mission-critical decisions that may significantly impact bottom lines or save human lives. The Capella Console, the company’s self-serve, automated satellite tasking platform, is a revolutionary and industry-first offering from Capella, enabling customers to easily request and download images and, if desired, analytic work product, directly without any human intervention. The Capella Console is a game changer for an industry that is traditionally known for frustratingly long lead times.
This funding will enable Capella to bolster its advanced analytics capabilities and integrate new automated, intelligent data offerings directly within the Capella Console. With integrated insights, customers can make informed decisions and act more quickly with greater confidence on matters of life and death importance. Recently, Capella launched three new integrated analytics capabilities for Vessel Detection, Change Detection and Global Change Monitoring. The company will also dedicate resources to launching its next generation of satellites with an enhanced design and improved resolution, quality, imaging capacity and delivery capabilities–reinforcing Capella’s position as the industry leader in high-performance commercial SAR intelligence from space.
“Since launching commercial operations last year, we’ve seen not only incredible growth for our company, but for the SAR market more broadly. This new funding is a testament to the market demand for quick delivery of high-quality commercial SAR data and analytics, and we’re seeing it firsthand at Capella,” said CEO Payam Banazadeh. “I’m excited for our next phase of growth and the opportunity to bring even more innovation and accessibility to the Earth observation industry.”
“The past few months have shown us the importance of leveraging strong commercial companies like Capella to provide the technology and teams to help our government and allies monitor areas of conflict. We are proud to support this mission through our investment and look forward to helping the Capella team expand their potential use cases and maximize on the immense innovation and market potential in front of them,” said Ken Gonzalez, Managing Director at NightDragon.
Capella is experiencing an impressive amount of growth for its commercial SAR products. The company doubled revenue in its last twelve months of operations and expects to more than triple revenue over the next twelve months with over 400 percent growth in customer count.
“Capella continues to be a pioneer in Earth-imaging for the most sensitive and vital geospatial intelligence needs over land and sea, no matter how remote or stormy or cloudy, day and night, at world-leading levels of quality” said Matt Ocko, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at DCVC. “DCVC was the first to invest in Capella because we saw Capella’s transformational power to make the world transparent for the ‘good guys’, where every organization has access to powerful satellite imaging tools for critical decisions involving disaster relief, land planning, or monitoring our critical infrastructure.”
“Capella’s high-resolution on-demand SAR imagery system has revolutionized access to timely and accurate insights that are mission-critical for commercial and government organizations.” said Bobby Yazdani, founder and partner at Cota Capital. “We are excited to work with the talented Capella Space team in realizing their vision.”