skyfi app satellite images 2

Satellite imaging is finally accessible for the masses. You can now purchase real-time satellite images of pretty much anywhere in the world with a few clicks.

This service, offered by the 2-year-old satellite startup SkyFi, was possible before. There are a myriad of existing commercial satellite imaging companies that take many millions of images of all corners of the Earth. However, the images are expensive and the process of ordering them can take an eternity.

SkyFi is already changing that. It isn’t launching satellites nor is it buying already orbiting satellites. Instead, it’s partnering with more than 12 satellite imaging companies of all different types that already have functioning satellites.

SkyFi lets you order up images using its app

SkyFi fills the niche of customer-facing satellite imaging by using already existing infrastructure. This business model is rather brilliant, assuming these customers exist and choose them.

The startup isn’t just targeting everyday consumers looking for a cool picture of their hometown or favorite monument. It also offers its services to large corporations, including defense contractors, and even the US government.

SkyFi was founded earlier this year and its app is already live and selling satellite images. You can ask for a specific area to be imaged with various options for the kind of image taken (optical, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), and hyperspectral).

You can also purchase already existing photos from the SkyFi marketplace.

The range of the startup’s imaging seems to be improving almost every day with major partnerships announced regularly. For example, it partnered with another satellite imaging company NearSpaceLabs Tuesday to offer 10 cm coverage of every single major US city.

The SkyFi app seems to be quite popular already. It has amassed over 50,000 downloads from the Google Play Store and likely more on the Apple App Store. It has mostly positive reviews as well with an average of 4 stars out of 5 on the Apple App Store.

Some users complained about frame rate issues while using the map, though that isn’t surprising as it is trying to render high-definition images quickly.

As SkyFi partners with more and more companies, the quality and range of its images and app as a whole will likely continue to increase. It also got a recent cash injection of $7 million in the form of a seed round that was announced Monday.

How is SkyFi Different?

The existing satellite imaging industry is a heavily bureaucratic system that requires oodles of time that many customers simply can’t afford. The lack of timeliness was actually the impetus for the founding of SkyFi.

Bill Perkins, the founder and owner of SkyFi, was looking to purchase satellite images for the hedge fund he was managing. He found the task absurdly frustrating and time consuming that he decided to break into the industry with the startup that would become SkyFi.

Perkins and his founder Luke Fischer are hoping that the current system is so expensive and difficult to navigate that it was reducing demand for satellite images. They hope to make it exponentially more accessible and efficient, which is a rather obvious strategy for increasing sales.

Fischer compares SkyFi to game-changing text companies saying: “I think of SkyFi as the Netflix of the geospatial world, where I think of Umbra, Satellogic and Maxar as the movie studios of the world.”

SkyFi App quick look – we like what we see from space

Here at Business 2 Community we downloaded the app and took a look at what it has to offer.

Even before logging in you can start scanning for the images you want to order. By default it starts by taking you to your current location.

The minimum coverage area is 25 km2. Just grab the rectangle corner points to resize. Alternatively search by place name or coordinates. Double tap to zoom in.

skyfi app review

When you are finished in the ‘New image’ tab area, click on ‘continue options’. The larger the area you want an image of, the more it will cost you.

Select the time period you want the satellites to use to try and capture your image and the sort of image you would like, such daytime, nighttime and even video.

Select resolution and, for more money, whether you want to be a top priority. You can see sample images before you buy.

skyfi app review 2

Now you can add to cart and make your purchase.

If your don’t have $170 to spend on a satellite image of New York City, search ‘existing images’ where you can buy one for $4.

skyfi app existing images

SkyFi also has a desktop app, as you can see in the screenshot below:

Skyifi desktop app

 

Interesting stat: SkyFi the only minority-owned American firm at GEOINT conference.

Another fact about SkyFi, shared by president and founder Bill Perkins, is that it was the only minority-owned US firm at the recent GEOINT Symposium event, said to be the largest gathering of geospatial intelligence professional anywhere on the planet.

Bill Perkins is not just the founder of SkyFit, he is also a hedge fund manager and high-stakes poker player, among other things.

SkyFi has raised $17 million from investors. Its most recent funding round was led by Balerion Space Ventures and raised $7 million.

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