SpaceKnow

SpaceKnow, founded in 2013 with offices in New York, San Francisco, and Prague, is a geospatial AI analytics company that analyzes multi-source satellite imagery — optical, SAR, and night-light data — to produce macro-economic intelligence products tracking industrial activity, construction growth, and supply chain dynamics globally, primarily serving institutional investors, hedge funds, and government intelligence customers.

SpaceKnow's flagship product is the SAI (Satellite-Based Assessment of Industrial Activity) China Manufacturing Index — a satellite-derived leading economic indicator constructed by monitoring factory rooftop areas, parking lot vehicle counts, and thermal emission signatures from Chinese manufacturing facilities visible in commercial satellite imagery. The SAI index launched in 2017 as an alternative economic intelligence product providing independent ground truth on Chinese manufacturing activity separate from government-reported PMI statistics, attracting attention from asset managers seeking data-driven alpha signals on China's economy.

Beyond China manufacturing monitoring, SpaceKnow applies similar computer vision and ML pipelines to global infrastructure monitoring: tracking construction of semiconductor fabrication plants, monitoring oil storage tank fill levels through floating roof radar shadow analysis, detecting shipping container inventory at ports, and observing military base activity changes. These applications serve geopolitical intelligence analysts and national security customers who need objective, satellite-verified ground truth independent of official government reporting.

SpaceKnow processes imagery from Planet Labs, Airbus Defence & Space, Maxar, and government open data sources (Sentinel-2, Landsat) through deep learning models that classify land use changes, count objects, and detect anomalies between time-series image pairs. The Prague engineering hub provides access to Central European deep learning talent at competitive costs relative to US market rates.

SpaceKnow raised $13.1 million across funding rounds from financial sector and intelligence-community-aligned investors. The company competes with Orbital Insight, SpaceFinance, and RS Metrics in the geospatial alternative data market.