London, 30 March 2023.- Impact Observatory, a D.C. geospatial mapping company using artificial intelligence (AI) and satellite imagery to power its technology, has raised a nearly $6 million seed round to bring its product to market and multiply in size, reports Technical.ly. Impact Observatory will also use the funds to continue research and development for additional monitoring capabilities.
The latest round included investment by Esri International LLC, a global provider of mapping and location intelligence. Impact Observatory’s maps are released via Esri, Microsoft, Amazon, and the UN, and have been accessed over one million times.
The company uses an AI-driven algorithm and real-time data to build digital maps to track land and environmental shifts. AI turns satellite images from the European Copernicus satellites and Sentinel satellites into maps. These maps show forests, grasslands, agriculture and developments including how the area has changed over time. The goal, according to Cofounder and CEO Steve Brumby, is to make the maps available to leaders in government, industry and finance so they can make better climate-based decisions.
“[We want to bring verifiable trust] to all sorts of environmental monitoring so that you can help people who are forward leaning, who are trying to do the right thing, help them make better plans and then show all their stakeholders that they are provably green,” says Brumby.
Impact Observatory has worked with tourism operators in or nearby the frontline communities of climate change impacts. With IO maps, officials can better understand threats to conservation, and use that information to make zoning decisions. US government officials are using the technology to develop plans for wildfires.
