EarthDaily Analytics (EDA), an EO data and analytics provider, acquired Descartes Labs and its subsidiary, Descartes Labs Government, in an effort to expand its product and service offering, the company announced yesterday.
In the short term, the acquisition gives EDA access to Descartes’ customers in the mining, energy, insurance, and logistics industries, as well as the US government. Down the line, orbit is the limit.
“Our general strategy is to be a vertically integrated company,” EDA CRO Eric von Eckartsberg told Payload. “We’re already seeing that borne out in a number of customer engagements, where the combination of the two companies is opening up new areas of discussion [and] new opportunities.”
Next steps: The news comes ahead of EDA’s planned 2025 maiden satellite launch in what will become a 10-satellite constellation.
- The satellites will be able to cover as much as 98% of Earth’s land surface with a daily revisit rate, according to von Eckartsberg.
- These birds will collect data across 22 spectral bands, including visible, near-infrared, short-wave infrared, and thermal-infrared, while utilizing artificial intelligence to crack into the business of change detection for large government and commercial clients.
By acquiring Descartes Labs, EDA is laying the commercial groundwork to offer data solutions for sustainability, forestry, insurance, and natural disaster use cases, von Eckartsberg said.
Pulling the strings: Both companies are owned by the same private equity firm, Antarctica Capital. EarthDaily Analytics formed in 2021 after the PE firm purchased assets from Canadian-based UrtheCast, which filed for bankruptcy in 2020. Antarctica Capital later acquired the controlling stake in Descartes Labs in 2022.
Since then, Antarctica Capital has been influential in finding synergies between the two companies. Descartes Labs Government selected EDA Constellation this year as a data supplier. Now that the two companies are one, that data exchange will be even more efficient. And the future may hold even more M&A opportunities for EDA.
“The acquisition also further enhances EDA as a platform for future geospatial acquisition opportunities,” EDA said in the announcement.
