Germany: BlackBridge has secured $20.25 million in funding from the Bank of Montreal (BMO) and the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) for the development of its next generation of satellites, RapidEye+, and for the renewal of existing credit facilities. This financing will contribute to the development of a new satellite constellation that will enhance BlackBridge’s existing imaging capabilities, allowing the company to expand its current range of geospatial solutions.
RapidEye+ will be a constellation of five satellites with an imaging capacity that will far exceed the current RapidEye constellation’s capacity of five million sqkm per day. The RapidEye+ superspectral system will include 14 bands for applications in agriculture, vegetation monitoring, land cover discrimination, water quality monitoring, etc. This band set also includes a panchromatic channel with resolution better than 1 meter. RapidEye+ is expected to launch in 2019, overlapping the operations of the current RapidEye constellation.
CEO Ryan Johnson told media that the constellation will allow BlackBridge to serve and grow its core markets in agriculture, REDD, and environmental monitoring with enhanced capabilities.
Source: BlackBridge
