Space Intelligence (Cohort 4 - 2021): Where Are They Now

How did the idea for Space Intelligence come about?

I have an academic background of around 20 years in natural sciences, geosciences and geography. This fed into my work in tropical forests undertaking surveys and developing tools to map forests at scale to capture their carbon content and their change over time. 

I met my co-founder, Ed Mitchard, in 2009 and we’ve worked together ever since. We realised there was a limit to what we could do as academics and decided to create a technology business through which we could hire people and scale our impact on the world. 

What is the real-world problem you’re trying to solve?

We're trying to address deforestation and forest degradation through human activity, particularly in the tropics, which results in around a fifth of all carbon emissions. 

Tropical forests are the world's most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystems and home to about one and a half billion of the world's poorest people. Losing these forests means not only emitting carbon, but also losing a potential carbon sink, driving the biodiversity crisis and losing sustainable livelihoods for a huge number of people. 

We would like to see a world by 2030 where deforestation has stopped.

What is the solution you are providing?

It's extremely hard and expensive to monitor forest degradation globally on a repeat basis to gather the huge amounts of data required to support mechanisms preventing deforestation. 

Using AI technology to relate satellite data with on-the-ground coverage of the world's forests, we can massively scale out analysis to create an accurate, meaningful and consistent map of forest ecosystems in different regions. 

We aim to support the policy and regulatory frameworks like the EU Deforestation Regulation that mandate an end to deforestation, while supporting new, evolving markets trading carbon. 

You took part in the AI Accelerator in 2021. Since then, how has Space Intelligence developed and how has the team grown?

We’ve grown a lot since we participated in the Accelerator, going from fewer than ten people to now over fifty!

Scaling up our team means we not only have a greater production capacity but have also brought in people with diverse skillsets in business, marketing, engineering and AI development to complement our discipline expertise and boost the professionalisation of the business.

This wouldn’t have been possible without us securing significant funding, including raising our seed round and our Series A funding round, with investment from global name entities like the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). 

Since the Accelerator, we’ve also publicly worked with major clients, such as Apple, and won several funding competitions that have helped to solidify our position as a quality player in this space. 

And we’ve worked with project developers managing forest resources in places like Indonesia.

How does this compare to when you first started Space Intelligence?

I think Ed and I were always quite commercial, but it's fundamentally different having specialists that can bring an entirely complementary skill set. This has been really critical for the scaling of the business and one of the main learnings for us coming out of the AI Accelerator.

The programme introduced us to the different disciplines needed to grow a business over and above our academic and technical ability. We were able to explore questions like: How are we going to finance our growth? How are we going to raise capital? How are we going to market the business? The AI accelerator was really useful at helping us answer these questions and know how to bring people with the necessary skills into the company.

What was your experience like working with the University and the AI Accelerator Programme?

It was a great opportunity to network and discuss ideas with a curated peer group of people who are building a business at the same time, which I think is an underrated but very valuable asset to have.

It also opened up specific opportunities for us to engage with AI and computing facilities at the University of Edinburgh, helping us make connections and access essential expertise that has expanded our capabilities at Space Intelligence.

Has your focus changed as a business since taking part in the programme?

The direction of the business remains the same and I firmly believe the world is moving towards better management of tropical forests. 

Policy and regulatory frameworks like the EU Deforestation Regulation weren't on the radar when we went through the Accelerator, so we’ve expanded the business to meet this growing opportunity, bringing on ecologists and dedicated AI roles to further enable our on-the-ground expertise and big data capabilities.

What’s next on the horizon for Space Intelligence?

We remain committed to supporting a transition to a world with zero deforestation by 2030. 

We're using innovative technology to scale what we do to be able to meet those demands, working this year to grow our roster of global brands we work with. I'm particularly excited about the opportunities emerging under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement for countries trading with one another to address their nationally determined contributions to climate change. 

We're seeing a huge amount of growth in this discipline in Southeast Asia and we’re excited to be pioneering the use of AI to drive efficiency and scale in our business to go out and meet that opportunity.