Planet Labs ($PL), the San Francisco EO company, reported positive free cash flow—$8M—for the first time as a public company in its first quarter earnings release yesterday.
Sure, it’s just one quarter, and Planet isn’t expecting to sustain free cash flow for another year or two, but we hear there’s demand for good news these days.
Planet saw revenue grow 10% year-over-year, and reported good progress building a fleet of Pelican satellites for its partnership with Japan’s Sky Perfect JSAT.
You’re up: CEO Will Marshall visited customers in Europe and said that he had “never seen the urgency I felt on that trip” from governments seeking access to Planet’s data.
“We’re seeing a strategic shift in Europe,” Marshall said. “People look at the changing way in which these new technologies play into security, as they have in Ukraine—drones and satellites and AI—and they realize that they need them, and they need them quickly.”
CFO Ashley Johnson cited an eight figure annual contract with a European defense and intelligence customer as a key reason for the company’s unexpected financial outperformance.
Fear the cut: Analysts were concerned about reported spending reductions at NASA and more specifically, reported reductions of up to a third to the NRO’s Electro-Optical Commercial Layer—a major source of demand for Planet, Maxar Technologies, and BlackSky.
Marshall emphasized that budgets were still in flux, with Congress yet to act, but drew comfort from the administration’s stated preferences for lower cost commercial solutions. “There’s more opportunities than risks in this environment in DC,” was the line of the day.
Stat check: The hyperspectral sensor on Planet’s Tanager-1 spacecraft is pulling down 300,000 sq km (1.2 million sq miles) of data every day. Planet is the main subcontractor on a $95M deal inked last quarter with the California Air Resources Board to employ that data.
