A Guildford-based British space-data company that turns satellite images and video into plain-English intelligence for governments, defence and industry.
Earth-i is a British company that studies pictures of the Earth taken from space and turns them into useful answers. Its own description is that it analyses images taken from space and gives businesses, charities and governments insights into activity on Earth, so they can track assets, watch important sites for change and anticipate what might happen next. One of its best-known products is SAVANT Metals Insight, which gives people who are not satellite experts a near real-time view of activity at smelters, the huge plants that process metal. Behind the products sits artificial intelligence (AI) software that combines pictures from many different satellites, which can be optical (like a camera), radar, or video.
The company was founded in 2015 by Richard Blain, who is chief executive. It began by selling imagery from the UK-built DMC3 satellites and radar data from NovaSAR, and then worked with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), the University of Surrey spin-out, on a small satellite called VividX2. Launched in January 2018, the company described it as the first commercial satellite to capture full-colour HD video of Earth. Earth-i's website footer says it helps companies and governments make better decisions through geospatial insight that is available at global scale, simple to use and low cost. A more recent write-up says the aim is to make Earth observation data accessible and actionable for decision-makers.
In the UK, Earth-i is based in Guildford, Surrey. A 2016 trade article describes an operations centre on the Surrey Research Park, which sits beside the University of Surrey and SSTL, one of the busiest clusters of space companies in the country. The company has signed an agreement with Telespazio VEGA (now Telespazio UK) to combine radar and optical data, has worked with the Satellite Applications Catapult, and is named by Planet as one of its UK technology partners. Public-sector work includes projects on infrastructure monitoring, emissions tracking and biodiversity.
On people and culture, the company's own news shows a team mixing space engineers, analysts and former defence and government staff. In 2018 it announced three senior hires: Sean Corbett, a retired RAF Air Vice Marshal who worked in NATO and US intelligence roles, Adina Gillespie, who came from SSTL and earlier worked for Defra, the Cabinet Office and the UK Space Agency, and Charles Davis, a chief operating officer from the IT services world. Mr Blain thanked staff past and present on the company's fifth birthday in 2020. Those are the company's own words, and we found no staff survey or review to check them against.
Teams at a firm like this include data scientists and software developers who build the AI tools, imagery analysts who read what the pictures show, product and customer-facing staff who explain the results to clients, and operations and finance people. If you enjoy maths, geography, physics, computing or following world events, it shows how all of these can be combined into one job. Check the company's own website, earthi.space, for how it is organised today.
Website: earthi.space
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