Earth Analytics made Simple

Space Startup Spotlight: Latitudo 40

As the private-sector space industry continues taking giant strides forward, it is fostering the growth of new startup companies looking for new ways to exploit space-based resources.

Latitudo 40 — the brainchild of Italian serial entrepreneur Vincenzo Vecchio — is a new enterprise seeking to use existing Earth-imaging satellite capabilities to provide valuable insights across a variety of sectors. The name of the company is a homage to Vecchio’s home town of Naples, which is 40 degrees north of the equator.

Vecchio began his career in the ICT sector more than 20 years ago, looking for ways to help companies build better computer networks. Then in 2017, the 44-year-old and three other founders saw that there was an opportunity to combine their tech skills to create data solutions that exploit information from the world’s satellite network. The team began working on a series of information-based products that could help with everything from measuring agricultural yield to monitoring the movement of planes.

Vecchio’s entrepreneurial experience so far has involved seeking funds first and then creating a viable product later. This time, though, he wants to do it the other way around by building intelligent software to interpret valuable data from satellite images that will make money for the company from the start.

So far, he is doing well. The startup is barely three years old but despite this, it already has more than ten collaborators — many of whom are young — working on graphic design and engineering. It turned over more than €300,000 in 2019 and looks set for similar success this year.

There’s no doubt that Latitudo 40 is riding on the coattails of NewSpace, but this is the kind of project you would expect to take off rapidly. The physical hardware is already in place — it is just a matter of developing software that can automate the interpretation of Earth observation. Once the firm can get a foothold in that market, its output could become very valuable indeed.

Furthermore, there’s little doubt the enterprise has the team to make it happen with the founders having more than 20 years of experience apiece, with up-and-coming star graduates bolstering its skillset. Every day, the company says, it is passionate about creating new tools that will allow people to monitor the Earth with satellite imaging. These features, it hopes, will let organizations gain new insights that assist with emergency response, flight tracking, infrastructure monitoring — and more.

As is the case for so many space entrepreneurs, user-friendliness is a priority for Vecchio. Not only does he want to create the most sophisticated satellite imaging analytics platforms in the world, but also the easiest to use. All customers have to do, he says, is click their area of interest for the type of service they require (such as crop monitoring), and away they go. While he admits that the data is complex, the system intuitively presents them with plenty of graphics.

Latitude 40, therefore, is undoubtedly a company you’ll want to watch going forward.

You can learn more about Latitudo 40 at their website and through their social media outlets: LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook

“Space Startup Spotlight” is a new, regularly-scheduled, profile of an up-and-coming space startup from around the world by NewSpace Hub.

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