There are thousands of satellites orbiting the Earth, and a growing number of them are able to capture all types of images in near real time.
It used to be a somewhat complicated process to access these images. But Austin-based startup SkyFi has built a platform that acts as a sort of “Getty Images” for more than 50 geospatial imagery partners that has proven popular in the worlds of finance, defense, infrastructure and insurance — to name a few.
That popularity escalated as SkyFi began offering more analytics and insights to its customers through its website and mobile app, along with the ability to “assign” satellites to take images of a location at a specific time, CEO Luke Fischer recently told TechCrunch.
“I think the real goal for us is to provide answers to customers, both government and commercial,” Fischer said. “The image is a commodity, or almost becomes a commodity, [so it’s] not only for speed of delivery, but more importantly, speed of delivery of responses to customers.”
Being able to offer information along with easily accessible images is a big reason why SkyFi was just able to close a $12.7 million Series A funding round, according to Fischer.
This is reflected in the composition of the round’s investors. It was co-led by Buoyant Ventures and climate-focused IronGate Capital Advisors, which invests in dual-use companies. Other investors included DNV Ventures (the investment arm of 160-year-old shipping company DNV), Beyond Earth Ventures (a space-focused firm) and TFX Capital (which has made a number of defense-related space investments).
Fischer said he and co-founder Bill Perkins — who comes from the hedge fund world, hence the emphasis on creating actionable insights — initially only tried to raise a round of about $8 million.
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But 2025 was a record year defense related investmentsand SkyFi received more demand from investors than expected, Fischer said. The company raised its goal to $10 million and again to $12 million, before reaching $12.7 million after bringing in some strategic investors. (One was DNV; Fisher declined to name the other on the record.)
Fischer said SkyFi was having trouble getting satellite imagery providers to hand over access to their data. Now, he said, onboarding new providers is “table stakes.”
“It took a while to get to this point, [but] we have the largest virtual constellation of assets. That means we have all the data in the world available to us, all the different types of sensors,” he said. SkyFi has been able to leverage all of this data and, crucially, the many requests it has received from customers over the past few years to create detailed offerings worth selling to commercial and government customers.
“We know better than anyone what they’re asking for,” he said.
Fischer said he learned firsthand how powerful that kind of feedback can be from his time helping lead Uber’s Elevate division.
“Uber has data about where people are going in the world. They’re putting different products, the bikes, the scooters, the electric aircraft, the drone delivery. We have this equivalent data of what people are looking at in the world that they’re asking for that data,” he said. “It gives us a much better angle. Again. We’re software first, so I don’t have the burden of paying for hardware capex.”
Some of these clients will want to do their own analysis, such as hedge funds, Fischer explained. But most are increasingly interested in what SkyFi has to offer on the information side, he said.
The company plans to use the new funding to expand all of this, though Fischer is clearly proud to have built a product that is deeply capable yet inherently affordable, to the point that even his own family uses the product.
“My teenage daughters are doing satellites for high school and now for college, homework on their iPhones,” she said.
