🦄 Unicorner Startup of the Week: Albedo
 
 
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Aerial quality imagery from space
 
 
Albedo aims to create and operate satellites that have 9x higher resolution than what is on the market today. It’s also modernizing the satellite imagery process, using cloud computing to fuel real-time access to its data.
 
 
🔗 Check it out: albedo.com
 
 
💰 Business Model
Albedo is available to people and businesses that want to view the highest quality satellite imagery with delivery within hours. Customers will pay $35/square km, with a minimum of 25 km.
 
📈 Traction and Fundraising
  • Raised $48 million Series A round with investors like Jetstream, Shield Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, Initialized Capital, and more
  • Took part in Y Combinator’s Winter 21 batch
  • Participated in the 2022 AWS Space Accelerator
 
👫 Founders
  • Topher Haddad, CEO: Previously Sr. Systems Engineer @ Lockheed Martin, Electrical and Computer Engineering MS @ Johns Hopkins, Mechanical Engineering BS @ UT Austin
  • AyJay Lasater, CTO: Previously Systems Architecture Manager @ Lockheed Martin, Mechatronics Systems Engineering MS @ University of Denver, Mechanical Engineering BS @ Colorado School of Mines
  • Winston Tri, CPO: Previously Software Engineer @ Meta, iOS and Backend Developer @ bthere, Co-Founder @ Ping Social, Mechanical Engineering @ UT Austin
 
💼 Opportunities
 
🔮 Our Analysis
Satellite imagery capability dictates the effectiveness of a lot of behind-the-scenes work in many industries. Wildfire prevention, wildlife preservation, agriculture, digital mapping, urban planning, and insurance (damage assessment) are just a few areas where higher-definition and easily accessible satellite imagery can be key. That’s where Albedo comes in: Albedo is selling easily accessible 10-centimeter-per-pixel imagery, with added capabilities of thermal and moisture imaging, facilitated by its low-orbit satellites. Typical competitors who sell HD satellite imagery have resolutions of 30 to 70 cm per pixel. Albedo’s other advantage is its on-demand delivery, as it takes just hours for Albedo to deliver images using AWS cloud computing services. Competitors offer on-demand delivery, but not to the level of image quality offered by Albedo’s services. Albedo’s customer-centric approach expands to its low-commitment needed model, as all orders are assessed at a standard price per km (with a minimum of 25 km ordered). With Albedo’s imagery competing with normal aerial photography as opposed to typical satellite imagery, it’ll be extremely interesting to keep an eye on it as it grows, launches satellites, and raises capital.
 
📚 Further Reading
 
 
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💰 Bonus Content
From Bing to Sydney. The Stratechery blog dives into the question of sentience in artificial intelligence, and the recent odd conversations folks have been having with Bing's new chatbot, Sydney.
 
 
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