Near Space Labs nabs $20M to take its high-res imaging Swift robots into the stratosphere
Summary
But a startup called Near Space Labs has a very different approach to taking high-resolution photos from up high.Near Space Labs is building aircraft, called Swift, that are raised by helium balloons and then rely on air currents to stay up, move around to take pictures from the stratosphere, and eventually glide back down to earth. On the back of significant traction with customers using its images, the startup has now raised $20 million to expand its business.Bold Capital Partners (a VC firm founded by Peter Diamandis of XPRIZE and Singularity University fame) is leading the Series B round. Near Space Labs has now raised over $40 million, including a $13 million Series A in 2021.The startup is the brainchild of Rema Matevosyan (CEO), Ignasi Lluch (CTO), and Albert Caubet (chief engineer) all three of whom worked in space and physics technology and research prior to starting the company.Matevosyan is Armenian, growing up in what she described as a very technical family of physicists, programmers, and amateur astronomers. Matevosyan said that can be done relatively easily, since the company requires no special licenses to fly its Swift aircraft are only powered by balloons, need only wind currents, and can move about the stratosphere unmanned.The startup aims to ultimately cover 80% of the U.S. population twice a year with its 7 cm imagery. Matevosyan cited agriculture as an area where the startup could have an opportunity.A lot of farms, small and large, have tried to use drones to determine the state of their crops, but this was not scalable, she said, because it was not accurate enough.