Earth Blox has completed its first round of external funding as it seeks to break into new markets for its earth observation technology.
The Edinburgh firm has raised £1.5 million from investment syndicate Archangels to underwrite further development of its software which uses data from the Google Earth engine to allow anyone to analyse images gathered by satellite. This normally requires technical coding skills, but with Earth Blox is simplified to a “drag and drop” process.
“Investment into innovative businesses like ours is vital to growth in all areas, from customer acquisition to building a great team,” chief executive Genevieve Patenaude said. “This investment will help us develop Earth Blox as a scalable SaaS (software as a service) and get the power of Earth observation insights into the hands of a range of users around the world.”
The software is currently used by companies to verify their carbon offsetting initiatives in projects such reforestation, to gather climate security data, and to assist in underwriting forestry insurance products. It can also identify illegal activity such as deforestation and mining, which allows companies to monitor the sustainability of their supply chains.
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Clients include the likes of Shell Nature Based Solutions, the United Nations, Globe Underwriting and ADM Capital Foundation. The money from Archangels will allow Earth Blox to increase the volume of its data sources and expand into new markets such as agriculture, urban development, financing for asset management, and the execution of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) strategies.
The company said that with net zero and ESG as key drivers, the market for value-added services like Earth Blox is expected to double to £3.97 billion by 2031.
“Earth Blox is pioneering the way companies and organisations can access and use satellite data to make better business decisions about the world and how it’s changing,” said Niki McKenzie, joint managing director of Archangels.
“Based in Scotland but with global ambitions, Earth Blox aligns perfectly with our aim of supporting Scotland’s best early-stage businesses with high growth potential. We look forward to supporting Genevieve and her team on this next step of their journey to further develop the product and open up new markets.”
Now employing 20 people, Earth Blox was set up in October 2019 and launched its services in May 2020 under the stewardship of its founders Iain Woodhouse, Sam Fleming and Ms Patenaude.
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It has received funding and support from the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Innovate UK, and was a winner at both the Converge Challenge and Scottish EDGE awards in 2020. In 2021, Earth Blox received a place in the TechNation Net Zero Programme for fast-growing UK companies helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
It has additionally received funding from the UK Space Agency to support Earth observation students by helping them navigate the disruption to their education caused by the Covid pandemic. The project, led by Professor Woodhouse and Dr Patenaude, helped remotely train students from Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh and the Open University.
Founded in 1992, Archangels is believed to be the world’s longest-running business angel investment syndicate. With 120 members and full-time team of five executives, it currently has 21 companies in its portfolio of early-stage firms from Scotland’s life sciences and technology sectors.
The group led on 11 investments worth a record total of £23.7m in 2021, an increase of 44 per cent on the previous year. Of this, £11.2m was from its members, with the remainder sourced from co-investors Scottish Enterprise, Maven Capital Partners, Par Equity, Sands Capital Ventures and NVM.
Along with Earth Blox, other recent additions to the Archangels portfolio include dental technology company Calcivis and cancer diagnostic specialist BioCaptiva.
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