UrtheCast is a Vancouver-based company that provides clients with highly detailed images of Earth. The company is developing the OptiSAR constellation, equipping a group of satellites for Earth observation with SAR and optical sensors. It received $17.6 million from the federal government through Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s Industrial Technologies Office under the Strategic Aerospace and Defence Initiative (SADI). The funding will be used to develop technology to outfit the OptiSAR satellites and to make data and high-resolution images of millions of square kilometres easier for customers to use. UrtheCast currently works with more than 170 Canadian-based suppliers. CEO Wade Larson said the award validates the strategic and commercial opportunities of the company’s SAR and optical satellite technologies and marks an important step forward for the OptiSAR program. UrtheCast (Earth Video Camera Inc.) develops near-live HD video cameras and a ground-station/network to deliver interactive Earth video feeds. The company plans an interactive web platform targeting internet users, app developers, educators, media, governments, humanitarian organizations and environmental monitors. It intends to use the new capital to advance development of its cameras and its ground station network, both integral to launch and data processing. UrtheCast is working in an exclusive relationship with Russian aerospace firm RSC Energia to build, launch, install and operate two cameras on the Russian segment of the International Space Station. The beta version of its web platform was slated for release in fall 2012, and the cameras were slated to launch to the ISS aboard a Soyuz mission in the first half of 2013. The company is based in Vancouver, BC, Canada and intended to pursue a public offering in fall 2012.

Total raised

$22M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Mar 2017