SkyFi raises $12.7 million to turn satellite images into insights

There are thousands of satellites orbiting the Earth, and an increasing number of them are capable of capturing all kinds of images in almost real time.

It was a somewhat cumbersome process to get to those images. but Austin-based startup SkyFi It has built a platform that acts as a kind of “Getty Images” for over 50 geospatial imagery partners that has proven popular in the worlds of finance, defence, infrastructure and insurance – to name a few.

That popularity escalated when SkyFi began offering more analytics and insights to its customers through its website and mobile app, along with the ability to “task” satellites to capture images of a location at a specific time, CEO Luke Fischer recently told TechCrunch in an interview.

“I think the real goal for us is to provide answers to customers, both government and commercial,” Fisher said. “Images are a commodity, or have become a commodity more closely, (so) it’s not just about speed of delivery, but more importantly, speed of delivery of answers to customers.”

The ability to provide insights alongside accessible images is a big reason why SkyFi was able to close a $12.7 million Series A funding round, according to Fisher.

This is reflected in the composition of investors in the round. It was co-led by climate-focused fund Buoyant Ventures and IronGate Capital Advisors, which invests in dual-use companies. Other investors include DNV Ventures (the investment arm of the 160-year-old maritime company DNV), Beyond Earth Ventures (a space-focused company), and TFX Capital (which has made a number of defense-related space investments).

Fisher said he and co-founder Bill Perkins — who comes from the hedge fund world, hence the focus on generating actionable insights — initially only sought to raise a round of about $8 million.

But 2025 was a record year for… Defense related investmentsSkyFi has received more investor demand than expected, Fisher said. The company raised its target to $10 million, and again to $12 million, before hitting the $12.7 million figure after some strategic investors joined the round. (One was DNV, while Fisher declined to name the other on the record.)

SkyFi was having more difficulty convincing satellite image providers to hand over access to their data, Fisher said. He said the inclusion of new providers was now “stakes on the table”.

“It’s taken some time to get to this point, (but) we have the largest virtual collection of assets. That means we have all the data supply in the world to us, all kinds of different sensors,” he said. SkyFi has been able to leverage all that data and, more importantly, the many requests it has received from customers over the past few years to build analytics offerings worth selling to commercial and government customers.

“We know better than anyone else what they are asking for,” he said.

Fisher said he learned firsthand how powerful that kind of feedback can be from his time leading Uber’s Elevate division.

“Uber has data about where people are moving in the world,” he said. “They layer different products, like bikes, scooters, electric planes, drone deliveries. We have that equivalent data about what people are looking at in the world and asking for that data.” “It gives us much better visibility. And again. We’re software first, so I don’t have the burden of having to pay the capex for hardware.”

Some of these clients will want to do their own analysis, such as hedge funds, Fisher explained. Most of them are increasingly interested in what SkyFi has to offer in terms of ideas, he said.

The company plans to use the new funding to expand on all of this, though Fisher is clearly proud of building a product that is so capable but so inherently accessible that even his family uses the product.

“My teenage daughters are doing their homework via satellite for their high school, and now in college, on their iPhones,” he said.