Canada: UrtheCast and Twenty First Century Aerospace Technology (21AT), China’s largest independent commercial satellite operator and non-governmental investor in remote sensing satellite systems, have announced a long-term strategic partnership to acquire geospatial data from the UrtheDaily Constellation, UrtheCast’s planned constellation of Earth observation satellites which will deliver daily, medium resolution imagery of the entire planet’s landmass, excluding Antarctica.
By entering into this agreement, 21AT becomes a key anchor partner for the UrtheDaily Constellation and UrtheCast’s strategic partner for UrtheDaily Constellation data within the large Chinese market. 21AT will use the data to build an applications service platform to improve the decision-making services for users across China and beyond.
“With several years of experience in the industry, 21AT views this flow of data as a highly innovative technical and commercial differentiator for Earth Observation. Delivering daily coverage of the Earth as geo-analytic ready imagery, directly into the hands of our users, will be a great asset to significantly grow applications,” says Mr Wang, 21AT’s Vice President. “International cooperation has always been a very important part of our success and the UrtheDaily Constellation is one of the best solutions we have seen clearly designed to meet our future growth strategy and application demands in China. This will significantly increase the value of decision support tools made available to our customers. As a result, we are committed to this deep partnership with UrtheCast.”
“This commitment in UrtheDaily from 21AT is a major endorsement for our best-in-class Constellation from a recognized leader in the Earth observation industry,” stated UrtheCast’s President and CEO, Wade Larson. “We are dedicated to ensuring the success of our strategic partnership with 21AT together benefiting from the huge market potential in China and across the globe. With our UrtheDailyTM financing package expected to close by year-end, we are more confident than ever in UrtheCast’s ability to become the pre-eminent provider for the next generation of Earth observation data and analytics services.”
The Agreement is subject to UrtheCast arranging its financing for the build and launch of the UrtheDaily Constellation, and other customary conditions for agreements of this nature.
UrtheCast has also announced that it has now signed binding data subscription agreements for the UrtheDaily Constellation totaling in excess of C$100M. Consisting of three anchor customers and multiple incremental customers, these long-term revenue commitments contribute to a consistent UrtheDaily revenue stream over contract durations of between four and seven years.
“These binding revenue commitments from a diverse group of market leaders demonstrate a widespread recognition of the UrtheDaily Constellation as a best-in-class technology and a clear game-changer in the Earth Observation industry,” stated UrtheCast‘s President and CEO, Wade Larson. “We have now grown the stable, highly predictable revenue stream underlying the UrtheDaily business to a total backlog of more than C$100 million. Having reached this important milestone, and with our UrtheDaily financing package expected to close by year-end, we are in an excellent position to confidently move forward with the development of the UrtheDaily Constellation and our goal of becoming the pre-eminent provider for the next generation of Earth Observation data and analytics services.”
