• $10M seed funding co-led by Lakestar and VSquared for world’s first globally scalable water stress monitoring system
• constellr offers precise and plot-level water monitoring for the agricultural sector worldwide in times of rapid climate change
• With the fresh capital, constellr will comprehensively map the world’s crops to enable the early detection of water stress symptoms and help facilitate a sustainable global food system

Freiburg, Germany, 2 November 2022 – constellr, a space data and services company building the world’s first globally scalable crop water monitoring system to help ensure global food security, today announces $10M in seed funding. Lakestar and VSquared co-led the financing round, with participation from early and new supporters FTTF, IQT, Amathaon Capital, Natural Ventures, EIT Food, OHB Venture Capital, Next Humanity, and Seraphim. With this investment, constellr will develop its first two satellites, conclude its existing pilot programs and develop its processing platform.

Food and water insecurity will increasingly be among the greatest challenges faced by society. By 2050, the United Nations estimates that 50% more food will be needed by the Earth’s population, leading to a water increase of 40% by the end of this decade. Of all the world’s freshwater, an incredible 70% is used in agriculture of which an estimated 60% goes to waste due to inefficient irrigation and planting methods, equating to an astonishing 40% of global freshwater.

Our inability to measure the water needed in agriculture is a massive contributing factor to this problem. Non-sustainable water use globally costs €220B a year and is expected to reach a staggering €2T by the end of the decade – the equivalent of only eight harvests away. We’re seeing an entire paradigm shift taking place as water becomes an increasingly scarce resource and the limiting factor in food production.

Spearheaded by researchers Max Gulde, Marius Bierdel and Christian Mittermaier, constellr was spun out of the Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institut, EMI with the mission to mitigate the impending food gap. By using microsatellites to monitor the Earth’s surface temperature and soon also its chemical composition, constellr’s technology can robustly derive water need and water availability across every field on the globe, every single day. Unlike existing satellites, constellr's microsatellites go beyond visual imaging to identify stress symptoms before crops are damaged. Consequently, constellr allows earlier response times across high-precision agriculture, crop health monitoring and sustainable resource management compared to current space-based systems.

constellr’s satellite images provide high-precision data that can be used, for example, to determine the water requirements of crops that have already been cultivated. Therefore, an impending drought can be recognized much earlier than with existing methods and fast enough to implement effective mitigative actions such as targeted irrigation. This method optimizes and reduces water consumption while increasing crop yield per litre of water used. Crop health and yield is particularly sensitive to heat, so constellr’s monitoring system offers the opportunity to massively improve early crisis detection, with knock-on effects across supply chain management and commodity trading. By providing the central dataset for agriculture to build reliable forecasts, constellr is helping to determine yield more robustly and much earlier, and avoid potentially catastrophic supply chain effects.

constellr facilitates the saving of up to 40% of water and reduces the risk of crop loss, driving towards an environmentally positive agricultural system. Within five years, constellr expects to leverage 60 billion tons in water savings, thereby avoiding 14 megatons of CO2 being emitted and generating billions of Euros in gross benefits for farmers.

The team has worked relentlessly on all fronts, removing obstacle after obstacle, getting a first camera in space and pilot customers onboard. And now, we are incredibly proud to partner with what will become our mission control: Lakestar, VSquared, FTTF and IQT for deep tech, Amathaon Capital, Natural Ventures, EIT Food and Next Humanity for agriculture, and Seraphim, OHB Venture Capital and Spacebel for space. Together, we just ignited the second stage towards a global water monitoring system,
says constellr Co-Founder and CEO Max Gulde.

constellr is currently working with large agrifood, agrichemistry and smart irrigation organizations. It has a rapidly growing number of pilot programmes in place with clients, allowing farmers to drastically reduce monitoring costs, while improving the reliability and availability of their crop health assessments.

As a result of the higher demand for food, less land being available for agricultural production and changing environmental conditions, the likelihood of increasingly strict regulations being applied to the use of water and fertilizer is very high. This further emphasizes the need for scalable monitoring solutions. With satellites the size of a small refrigerator and the injection of fresh capital, constellr anticipates to be able to answer this need within 18 months.

constellr’s team is growing rapidly, having doubled in the last six months. It currently counts over 40 team members with roots in aerospace engineering, insurance, clean tech, finance and data science. It has a combined contribution to over 20 space missions, including several constellations.

Climate change is the fundamental challenge our generation is facing and, in our efforts to combat its effects, we must ensure the global food and water systems are more resilient. Never has there been a greater need for scalable monitoring solutions like that offered by constellr. We’re thrilled to join their journey in building cloud-based space infrastructure that will enable European leadership to effectively monitor agriculture
says Lakestar’s Venture Partner leading Deep Tech investments, Steven Jacobs, who will join the board.

Despite being a young company, we believe constellr is already well positioned to become one of the leaders in the next generation of earth observation solution providers. We followed the team for almost two years before making this investment and are impressed with the culture and their ability to execute and build on their ambitions on the technical as well as the commercial side. For us, this is the first time we invest in an earth observation business, having invested only in space infrastructure cases previously
says Herbert Mangesius, VSquared’s founding partner.

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Press Contact

Tom Climie
e | tom.climie@kekstcnc.com
t | +44 7760 160 248

Marisa Wagner
e | marisa.wagner@kekstcnc.com
t | +49 152 543 727 77

About constellr

constellr is a German deep-tech start-up from Freiburg that operates at the interface of Earth Observation and agriculture. A spin-off of the Fraunhofer, Europe’s largest organization for applied science, constellr is dedicated to supporting global food security in times of climate change. Based on a proprietary space infrastructure with unique sensing capabilities, constellr offers precise and plot-level water monitoring for the agricultural sector worldwide. As a space data and services company, constellr is leading the way in delivering daily, global land surface temperature data for the agri-tech industry. constellr provides the fundamental global data for smart crop monitoring, identifying changes in crop health days to weeks before they become visible and enabling farmers to react early to and mitigate for potential crop risks and losses. This advanced warning means the risk of crop failure or damage is significantly reduced, allowing more accurate crop yield forecasting and thus better stability and management across supply chains.

Visit us on LinkedIn and our website www.constellr.space

About Lakestar

Lakestar’s mission is to find, fund and grow disruptive businesses - enabled by technology - that are founded by exceptional entrepreneurs in Europe and beyond. Founded by Klaus Hommels, the team’s early investments include Skype, Spotify, Facebook and Airbnb. Since raising its first fund in 2012, Lakestar manages an aggregated volume of over €1.2bn across three early stage funds and a growth fund.

The team actively advises and supports portfolio companies in marketing, recruitment, technology, product development and regulatory insight, accompanying founders from seed to early stage to growth stage or exit. Lakestar currently has the privilege of holding investments in Revolut, Blockchain.com, Opendoor, Oscar, GetYourGuide, sennder, Eigen, Public.com, SoFi, Solarisbank, Uncapped, Yapily, Terra Quantum, accuRx, Rhino, ZEBEDEE and Hometogo to name a few. Lakestar has presence in Berlin, Zurich and London.

Visit us on LinkedIn and our website www.lakestar.com

About Vsquared Ventures

Based in Europe's deep tech hub Munich, Vsquared Ventures supports ambitious founders and start-ups that set out to make the seemingly impossible possible. Vsquared Ventures finds and funds companies that have the potential to become global leaders in future markets emerging through technological breakthroughs. Portfolio start-ups include companies such as Isar Aerospace, IQM Quantum Computing and INBRAIN Neuroelectronics. Prior to founding Vsquared Ventures, General Partners Thomas Oehl, Herbert Mangesius and Benedikt von Schoeler led the activities of deep tech pioneer Vito Ventures.

Visit us on LinkedIn and our website www.vsquared.vc

Media Packs

(incl. logos, images etc.)
> constellr Standard Press Kit

German thermal remote sensing specialist, constellr, has acquired Belgian hyperspectral firm ScanWorld, in a first for Europe’s emerging agricultural Earth Observation (EO) sector. The transaction will enable actionable monitoring across the full spectrum of water, carbon, energy and crop health and represents a pioneering step for fusing technological capabilities in the sector.

The acquisition of ScanWorld will accelerate constellr’s plans to become the European market leader in beyond-visual data services - starting with thermal - for smart farming. New use cases range from irrigation optimisation to soil organic carbon assessment and beyond. ScanWorld’s world class hyperspectral product development know-how augments constellr’s thermal infrared and data processing capabilities. These existing and future proprietary datasets will help further leverage and augment the value of public programmes such as Landsat and Copernicus.

Building on the existing partnership between constellr and ScanWorld, constellr saw the opportunity to merge the core offering of the two companies to provide an unprecedented planetary health monitoring service. The high quality and revisit of this combined data will bridge gaps in current data streams and allow for advanced data integration and fusion.

"We believe there is no current provider able to bring this joint imaging and analytics capacity to the market in the timescales that we can. This is a game-changer for the sector.”
says Max Gulde, CEO of constellr.

The potential for tapping into diverse markets and addressing new applications with this fusion of infrared and hyperspectral imaging is huge. Digital smart farming is currently highly dependent on vegetation indices that draw on visual indicators of crop health, often showing damage rather than mitigable stress symptoms. constellr’s highly precise thermal monitoring service will provide days to weeks earlier warning of crop stress at field level, using temperature as a strong indicator of plant health. With hyperspectral, the company can go steps further in terms of measurement accuracy and quantification to map and model diverse agricultural characteristics at various scales.

This combination of technologies unlocks a range of potential use cases, such as enhancing crop yield by better understanding the varying influences of stress at different growth phases; optimizing irrigation via access to both evapotranspiration and soil moisture measurements; detecting disease through changes in leaf and cell structure and photosynthetic activity; optimizing fertilization practices through a more detailed look at the relation between growth phase, root water uptake and nitrate supply. Critically, the acquisition brings the company closer to addressing the emerging global need for soil quality monitoring, at scale, unlocking a more innovative, climate-resilient agri-food supply chain.

“Our team is delighted to take the collaboration to a new level, leveraging our highly complementary technologies to enter new markets and offer wide-ranging benefits to constellr’s customers in the agricultural space and beyond.”
enthuses Guerric de Crombrugghe, former ScanWorld General Manager, who will now lead product development at constellr, putting customer value at the heart of the company’s strategic priorities.

The transaction brings on board ScanWorld’s former shareholders, SPACEBEL S.A. (Belgium), to complement constellr’s strong set of existing investors, FTTF, OHB Venture Capital, Amathaon Capital and Next Humanity Ventures; and as well offers a new European capital as a recruitment location for constellr expanding team.

The longer term implications for remote sensing in monitoring and addressing economic and social as well as environmental and climate risks to food supply are considerable and have been emphasized by the recent conflict in Ukraine. Novel data sources along with new commercial capabilities in data fusion such as that planned by constellr and ScanWorld will help mobilize longer term thinking and planning for food security as well as accelerate the development and take-up of data from future public remote sensing missions.

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About constellr

constellr is a NewSpace data and services company leading the way in delivering a daily, global beyond-visual monitoring service for the agricultural sector. The company provides the fundamental global data for smart crop monitoring, identifying changes in crop health days to weeks before they become visible and enabling producers and other players across the supply chain to react early to and mitigate for potential crop risks and losses. This drives a reduction in uncertainty in crop yield forecasting, in turn limiting price volatility, improving logistics planning and increasing transparency across agri-food supply chains.

constellr launched its first thermal infrared sensing system into orbit in February this year and already has pilot customers using its first imaging data in Europe and the US. ScanWorld’s Brussels and Liège based teams are already collaborating closely with the constellr’s data processing and product development teams in Germany to help bring the first suite of thermal products to market. The next phase of joint technology and product development is to kick off in the coming months.

About ScanWorld

ScanWorld is a NewSpace and AgTech company focused on the delivery of affordable, hassle-free and easily accessible satellite imagery and analytics. Its products aim to optimize input management, maximize yield, and promote good environmental stewardship. The company is building an infrastructure to provide high-quality Level 2 hyperspectral imagery, multiple times per week, for any point of the globe. This enables a wide range of applications such as soil organic carbon estimation, early disease alerts, or even water and fertilizers management.

Quotations from Investors

Quote from Amathaon

“We're thrilled to be supporting constellr’s growth and look forward to an extremely bright future for this outstanding team and product. With the acquisition of ScanWorld, the team is steps closer to building a real-time atlas of our biosphere. This joint technology will be a revolution in earth observation for a new generation of farming and land stewardship”

Quote from OHB SE

“We are very much thrilled by this acquisition. The combination of both TIR and hyperspectral space technologies embedded in micro-satellites will enable unique and unprecedented data products and services with very high added value for humankind. At OHB, the worldwide leader for hyperspectral space systems (Prisma, EnMAP, Copernicus CHIME), we are delighted by the perspective to get soon companions to our hyperspectral satellites in orbit contributing to the further growth of the EO downstream market.” Sebastien Tailhades, Domain Manager Earth Observation at OHB SE

Quote from FTTF

“We are very excited to have bundled two european spacetech innovations, which generate an even stronger use case for various customer groups on a global scale.” Tobias Schwind, Managing Director, Fraunhofer Technologie-Transfer Fonds (FTTF) GmbH

Quote from SPACEBEL

“Merging ScanWorld with constellr technologies is THE solution to efficiently reach the ultimate purpose ScanWorld stands for, i.e. tackle worldwide challenges in sustainable agriculture, forestry, and environmental monitoring. As a new shareholder of constellr, SPACEBEL is pleased to contribute to this new dimension as it allows us to reinforce our deployment in Europe while offering us indirectly the opportunity to help to build a sustainable future for our planet Earth and its inhabitants.” Thierry du Pré-Werson, Managing Director of SPACEBEL

Media Contact Details

Cassi Welling, Chief Operations Officer
e | cassi@constellr.space
t | +49(0)170 7750 148
w | https://constellr.space/
in | https://www.linkedin.com/company/constellr/

Media Packs

(incl. logos, images etc.)
> constellr Standard Press Kit

Following the successful launch of its first thermal infrared monitoring payload in February to the International Space Station (ISS), constellr saw its LisR instrument returning first thermal images to earth last week. First processing of results reveals the images are well focused, sharp and allow for good feature detection, allowing for an unprecedented view on streets, rivers, fields and specific urban and rural land uses, hinting at their strong potential to support operational land management.

A series of in-field agricultural pilot demonstrations based on this first data from LisR is already planned for the 2022 growing season. These will take place across Europe and North America, with customers from EO analytics, agribusiness and research sectors set to understand how timely thermal satellite imagery can improve their practices. .

“Since the launch of LisR, we have seen a significant market pull, with international prospects approaching us to test our data across a range of commercial agricultural applications”
Dr. Lina Hollender, Chief Commercial Officer at constellr.

constellr’s first infrared camera captures data from across the planet within two thermal infrared bands. From this information, along with additional earth observation data, it is possible to derive the Land Surface Temperature (LST), a key environmental variable at the heart of water, carbon, and energy cycles.

In order to bring the most value to customers in the agricultural industry and support a more resilient and sustainable agri-food system, it is necessary to provide a high level of geometric and radiometric precision allowing the accurate determination of LST. From precise LST, it is possible to derive higher-level products such as evapotranspiration much more reliably than is currently possible today.

The FAO (2020) estimates that irrigated areas in sub-Saharan Africa will more than double by 2050. Equipping these areas with robust thermal data will help optimise irrigation practices and significantly maximise yield. Since agriculture is responsible for 70% of all freshwater withdrawals, whilst two thirds of the world’s population will face water shortages by 2025, being able to optimise the use of water based on new, affordable, datasets is critical.

constellr’s LisR mission focuses primarily on the demonstration of the company’s patent-pending TIR monitoring technology. Already this first payload can provide a high resolution imaging stream to feed to customers however. constellr is about to launch a new digital platform through which customers will be able to access a harmonised stream of thermal data, collected from a range of sources, now including LisR. This significantly augments the viability of the current thermal infrared offer for commercial applications.

LisR’s goal, to provide high resolution LST data, is similar to NASA’s Ecostress mission, which collects data mainly over US soil. Whilst capable of collecting globally and already providing much more geometric detail (80 m) than Sentinel-3 (1000 m), LisR is limited by the ISS orbit and swath width of 25 km which cannot guarantee a regular pass over of the same region at the same time of day (ideal for agriculture applications). These limitations will vanish with the launch of the company’s satellite constellation, the first phase of which starts in 2023, ramping up to a capability of daily revisit by 2024.

“We are thrilled with the performance of LisR’s ‘first light’ imagery. Our goal is to aim for the same level of radiometric accuracy as NASA´s Ecostress system: we’re continuing to evaluate this and look forward to presenting more detailed characteristics of the data at the 4S Symposium in Portugal as well as the Living Planet Symposium in Bonn, in May”
says Marius Bierdel, constellr’s CTO.

constellr is currently hiring - visit our careers page for the latest open positions.

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About constellr

constellr is a NewSpace data and services company leading the way in delivering a daily, global water monitoring service. constellr provides the fundamental global data for smart crop monitoring, identifying changes in crop health days to weeks before they become visible and enabling farmers to react early to and mitigate for potential crop risks and losses. This allows customers to reduce uncertainty in crop yield forecasting, limiting price volatility, improving logistics planning and increasing transparency across agri-food supply chains.

Media Contact Details

Cassi Welling, Chief Operations Officer
e | cassi@constellr.space
t | +49(0)170 7750 148
w | https://constellr.space/
in | https://www.linkedin.com/company/constellr/

Media Packs

> constellr Standard Press Kit
> constellr Launch Media Pack - for information purposes only

On Saturday 19th February 2022, German NewSpace company constellr successfully launched their first thermal infrared earth observation system into space for global water monitoring. The payload was launched from Wallops Island, Virginia, part of the Northrop Grumman resupply mission to the International Space Station.

The novel payload, LisR (Longwave Infrared Sensing demonstratoR), is the first of its kind to be launched by constellr and is a precursor to its full constellation of microsatellites, the first generation of which will be launched end of 2023. It paves the way for a scalable, commercial water monitoring service for smart agriculture based on the detection of changes in crop health days to weeks before current approaches.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the UN and the World Wildlife Fund, agriculture consumes 70 percent of the world's available freshwater. 60 percent of this water is wasted however, due to ill-maintained irrigation systems, inefficient application methods and crops that require more water than their environment allows. This is where constellr’s technology will be so relevant: their coloured land surface temperature heatmaps, depicted across a scale of blue, turquoise, yellow, orange and red represent various scales of plant stress and water availability at sub-field level. This level of insight helps in the optimisation of smart irrigation systems, the detection of potential threats to yield and the early mitigation of crop stress.

These kinds of maps and measured biophysical indicators have the potential to disrupt global agricultural practices and could in the future improve weather models, optimise urban planning and drive more effective disaster management.
Dr. Max Gulde, CEO of constellr

Founded in 2020, constellr has grown from three founders to over 25 employees across aerospace engineering and data science, software development and commercial teams. The company draws on a heritage of over 20 space missions and brings critical industry experience from a range of industry heavyweights including OHB, Planet, MunichRe, Honeywell and Ernst & Young.

The team’s patented space-based technology will deliver high-precision, granular crop health data, allowing the derivation of evapotranspiration and other biophysical factors that help determine biosphere health. This information offers the potential to enhance precision agriculture on a global basis and deliver actionable insights faster and more cost efficiently than existing solutions.

This demonstrator technology provides the first thermal datastream for constellr, with the goal that the data will be utilised by their pilot clients as early as April 2022. The technology will allow the team to understand more about how its thermal infrared system performs in space whilst allowing agri-analytics customers to pilot the use of a novel, calibrated thermal EO dataset and guide the design of future monitoring products. It represents a first step in constellr’s vision to build a deeper atlas of the planet’s ecosphere, driving a better understanding of global resources, more crop per drop and a strong contribution to global food security.

constellr anticipates large agri-food companies including Bayer Crop Sciences, BayWa and Ferrero, as well as governments and global agricultural research groups to be among their future clients. For such customers, the scalability and high precision of constellr’s data in supporting yield monitoring, prediction and management, will be key.

When plants are in bad shape they wilt and change colour, by which point it is already too late to take mitigative action. Thanks to the infrared technology with which constellr’s satellites will be equipped, it will be possible to detect early signs of water stress up to two weeks earlier. This can help prevent long-term crop damage, over-watering and water waste.
Dr. Max Gulde, CEO of constellr

Together with a world class team at OHB, constellr is taking on the challenge of scaling down the size and cost of a normally very complex payload while maintaining the very high performance required so that we can be complementary with large institutional missions, with the added benefit of a higher revisit time. The LiSR demonstrator is an important first milestone in this technology evolution and we look forward to continuing working together in the future.
Egbert Jan van der Veen, Managing Director of OHB Venture Capital & Head of Strategy at OHB Group.

constellr is a spin-out from Germany’s Fraunhofer institute. The company’s innovative first payload has been designed and developed in partnership with Fraunhofer EMI, Fraunhofer IOF, SpaceOptix and IR Nova and with the support of Nanoracks, BMWi, EXIST, LZN and the Digital Innovation Hub Photonics.

constellr counts Amathaon Capital, OHB Ventures and FTTF among its investors and is working closely with partners OHB, Nanoavionics, Exolaunch and the European Space Agency to de-risk its ongoing technology development. The team and its advisors are based across the globe in Germany, Sweden, Canada, the UK, France, Italy and the US.

For further details on the constellr launch, the LisR system, and learn more about potential commercial applications, please view the Launch Media Pack below.

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About constellr

constellr is a NewSpace data and services company leading the way in delivering a daily, global water monitoring service. constellr provides the fundamental global data for smart crop monitoring, identifying changes in crop health days to weeks before they become visible and enabling farmers to react early to and mitigate for potential crop risks and losses. This allows customers to reduce uncertainty in crop yield forecasting, limiting price volatility, improving logistics planning and increasing transparency across agri-food supply chains.

Media Contact Details

Cassi Welling, Chief Operations Officer
e | cassi@constellr.space
t | +49(0)170 7750 148
w | https://constellr.space/
in | https://www.linkedin.com/company/constellr/

Media Packs

> constellr Launch Media Pack
> constellr Standard Press Kit

• Marius Bierdel is constellr’s Chief Technology Officer and the leading figure in the IOD team. As co-founder, Marius has been with constellr since the very beginning, drawing on his deep knowledge of running full-scale space research and development programs.
• Marius has built our engineering team and has leveraged top technology partners to bring our first Thermal Infrared system from design to launch-readiness in less than a year.. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering from the Technical University of Dresden and has worked as an aerospace engineer at Airbus Group and Jena-Optronik as well as previously holding research management positions at Fraunhofer EMI.
• For Marius, this mission represents “the opportunity to demonstrate that even a small team, through collaboration, a ‘go-get’ attitude and a drive to find solutions to challenges” can bring such a high-risk-of-failure project to fruition.



• Atin Jain leads constellr’s electronic engineering team and was responsible for the development of the full electronic system for our demonstrator payload as well as for its data retrieval operations.
• Atin is an experienced space payload electronics engineer, with experience of end to end (concept to product) electronics development and prior experience in infrared development projects from over eight years of experience gained at Honeywell UK as a senior design engineer as well as at Sling Media and VVDN Technologies in India. Atin studied Information and Communication Technology at the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of ICT in India.
• Atin anticipates a robust payload lifespan, allowing the team to learn the behavior and longevity of the COTS technology used in the payload, in particular, how our TIR technology deals with radiation and other extremes of the space environment.



• Philipp Weiland is a Systems Engineer at constellr. He has a background in experimental and numerical simulations within aerospace and automotive technologies. He holds experience from Airbus Defence & Space, Mercedes Benz / Daimler and Fraunhofer EMI gained during his MSc in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Stuttgart. Philipp has played a crucial role in undertaking structural and thermal simulations as our in-house Structural Engineer to ensure our technology will be compliant with NASA’s structural requirements and fit for ISS crew safety.
• This means it is safe for astronauts to handle and for duty outside of the ISS; demonstrating system stability and capacity to withstand impact. Philipp is looking forward to the point when constellr’s first payload, LisR shares her first image data. He is additionally part of the team building our future constellation and is looking forward to the learnings this mission can bring, including experience of the space environment, performance of imaging and optical elements, and our next technology development phase.

Our team regularly works with industry stakeholders and technology partners to collaborate on the development of our technology. Organisations such as Fraunhofer EMI Institute, Nanoracks, Fraunhofer IOF, IR Nova and SpaceOptix have provided critical engineering or product support and we will share more on these partnerships in due course.

constellr's vision is to advance understanding of the planet's ecosystems, enabling a more equitable and sustainable future governance of global resources. The first step in our mission is the provision of a robust data basis to drive 'more crop per drop' and help feed 10 billion people by 2050 (UN).

Our first thermal space system, LisR, is a Long Wave Infrared Camera system developed and built by constellr in collaboration with the Fraunhofer EMI Institute and others. It will fly on the Nanoracks External Platform (NREP) on the (Japanese Experimental Platform Exposed Facility (JEM-EF) bound to the International Space Station (ISS). The launch of the system is planned for February 19th, 2022. The camera will then be installed and be ready for commissioning (first light) on March 7th 2022.

Thanks and kudos to the entire IOD team and our partners for your hard work. See you all on the launch pad.

~Simon

‘Launching’ into the new year and beyond

Simon Pacheco Wolf

21.01.2022

January is of course the time for retrospectives and resolutions. With our Janus hat on, we constellrians had a lot to reflect on from 2021 but even more to get excited about for the upcoming year 2022.

November: NASA, Networking & Newbies

Simon Pacheco Wolf

06.12.2021

November was a busy month for events (closer to home than October: Bremen, Paris), partnerships (also close to home: Germany, Greece), and for getting closer to space, with our team in Houston delivering our final optical payload for tests and approval by NASA for launch early next year. Big steps towards our mission to monitor the globe in the thermal infrared.

constellr partners with geospatial experts cloudeo

Simon Pacheco Wolf

29.11.2021

New partnership with thermal satellite company constellr augments cloudeo’s geospatial marketplace, brings higher accuracy and localisation to its crop insurance product.

constellr announces a new partnership with geospatial experts cloudeo to help augment cloudeo's geospatial marketplace with unprecedented resolution and accuracy thermal infrared imaging data and bring higher accuracy and localization to its crop insurance product.

The agreement between the two geospatial data companies brings both commercial and technical advantages. constellr’s high-resolution thermal infrared data will be made available to cloudeo’s broad network of geospatial partners through the cloudeo marketplace, allowing customers in agriculture, oil & gas and maritime markets to exploit new, value-adding data layers which offer higher accuracy and better spatial resolution.

The partnership also allows cloudeo to enhance its Geo-Insurance product, an automated service delivering insights on crop health to insurance companies. constellr’s global temperature monitoring products and strong data science capabilities will help enhance the quality and accuracy of cloudeo’s crop damage monitoring and day-to-day farm management services, covering drought monitoring, heatwave- or frost-damage identification, and cost-effective irrigation insights. The performance of cloudeo’s crop type classification deep learning pipeline is also expected to be enhanced.

Based in Germany, constellr is pioneering the use of space-based thermal infrared imagery for high-precision agriculture, crop health monitoring, and sustainable resource management. With surface temperature as the key indicator, the company uses evapotranspiration as a fundamental measure of crop water need; critical for irrigation, yield monitoring, and enhancement. Unlike all other satellite-based approaches to crop monitoring, constellr’s data allows farmers to mitigate potential crop losses long before irreversible damage occurs. Their first system will launch into orbit in February 2022.

cloudeo is the world’s leading geospatial market platform offering easy access to high-quality, ready-to-use data from industry leaders worldwide as well as software application services and consulting. cloudeo has also developed Geo-Insurance, an online, fully automated platform focused on delivering insights to insurance companies and farmers for crops. Geo-Insurance helps estimate risk, portfolio exposure, fraud detection, and claim inspection prioritization, all tailored to the client's needs. cloudeo has headquarters in Munich, Germany. cloudeo recently expanded its presence with a new subsidiary (cloudeo Hellas) in Athens, Greece.

cloudeo will leverage its deep experience and heritage in the Earth Observation market to provide easy access to - and publicity for - constellr’s data in the geospatial community, enriching its partner product portfolio with unique high resolution and temperature accuracy data layers. Geoanalytics companies across agriculture, public (governmental), as well as oil & gas and maritime markets are the main targeted customer groups based on their interest in thermal data. Furthermore, cloudeo will utilize its geospatial partner network to widely promote constellr’s data for integration into new and existing geospatial applications.

Dr. Max Gulde, CEO of constellr’s said: “To fight climate change, we need to act now. One of the most vulnerable industries as well as the largest contributors is the agriculture sector. Bringing together the wealth of experience across the complete value chain, this partnership can support agriculture towards enabling a transition to a more secure, and more sustainable global food system.”

The two geospatial companies are not only joining forces to help find novel ways to distribute EO data and upgrade cloudeo’s damage assessment capabilities; their longer-term plan is also to explore the potential for joint product development, with a roadmap of activities already in planning.

Events and networking

• Our CEO Max Gulde, Constellation Programme Manager Riccardo Benvenuto, and COO Cassi Welling attended the International Astronautical Federation in Dubai. Here they hobnobbed with suppliers, exchanged with ESA’s Josef Aschbacher and Geraldine Naja, and saw even more evidence of a strengthening international NewSpace sector. They also had more than an adventure camping in the dunes. A story for another time...!



• Our Head of Data Science, Dr. Andreas Brunn hosted a side event alongside Henk Pelgrum from eLeaf and Pavel Bordioug, former NXT Farm and now CarbonTerra at European Space Agency - ESA's, Φ-Week on the opportunities for space-based thermal infrared data in optimizing agri-food systems.
• We also took part in BMW RESPOND Accelerator's Demo Night in Munich. A nice opportunity to meet our fellow cohort teams and hear pioneers talk on a range of inspiring topics from next-gen ESG to impact hiring.

Collaborations

• We became members of the Greentech Alliance, a network bringing technology businesses together to fight climate change and have a positive impact on the planet.
• We were selected to pitch at the Hello Tomorrow GLOBAL SUMMIT, taking place December 1-3 in Paris. We're pretty chuffed to have been selected as one of Hello Tomorrow's Deep Tech Pioneers as well as a finalist in both Bayer Crop Science and Sustainable Agriculture tracks. You can get tickets for this event here with a 30% friends discount code #MEETUSINPARIS.

As we race towards the end of the year, we look back with gratitude that we were able to meet in person with so many of our peers, partners, and suppliers this month.

Until the next one!

~Simon

“We are delighted with this German partnership. The high spatial resolution imagery provided by ConstelIR will complement our existing EO sources. It will also further enhance our agnostic AI fusion engine's capabilities, as we bring in our real-time disaster and risk intelligence solutions to various partners globally" Kian Mirshahi, CEO and Founder of Mayday.ai

“We are impressed by the analytical performance of the platform such as the sub-pixel detection accuracy of wildfires from geostationary orbit. On the one hand, we immediately saw the benefit of integrating our data to improve existing capabilities. On the other hand, we believe in transferring this approach to other sectors such as agriculture to improve analytical data products for which the current resolution might not be sufficient.” Dr. Max Gulde, CEO and Co-founder of constellr

Geospatial Software Engineer

In this position, you will help us design and develop the software tools to help process the data from our upcoming constellation of TIR sensing satellites.

Ground Segment and Operations Engineer

This role presents an exciting opportunity to lead the design and development of systems used for the control of our LEO TIR constellation.

2E2E Payload Performance & Simulation Engineer

For this job, we are looking for a top engineer to lead the development of a highly efficient infrastructure for our TIR payload and system.

Executive Assistant

As Executive Assistant you would support our busy leadership team from A-Z; an exciting development opportunity for an outstanding candidate.

New Hires and Active Hiring

• constellr brought onboard satellite data science veteran, Dr. Andreas Brunn. With his deep experience within remote sensing data science, including satellite calibration, image processing, multi-, and hyperspectral sensing, constellr is delighted to welcome him to the team! You can read more about Andreas, his experience, and why he joined constellr here.
• We have 4 new open positions and will be publishing details about these in the coming days

Partnerships and Collaborations

• We were excited to announce our newest partnership with ScanWorld. constellr believes both in the potential of hyperspectral and thermal imagery to secure the future of agriculture, this is why are so excited for this new partnership. You can read more about our MoU with the hyperspectral imaging company ScanWorld here.
• constellr became one of the founding members of the #NewSpace network Young European Entreprises Space Syndicate, or "YEESS" for shorts. YEESS was established to advocate for transparency and balance in public space contracts and aid the sustainable allocation of resources to SMEs. Read more about this new endeavor here.
• We also attended World Agri-Tech Summit in London and the EIT Food Summit in Malaga. At both events, we met new customers and partners, and presented our role in delivering space-based thermal infrared data for sustainable input management, yield enhancement, and carbon farming.

As you can see, the last few months have been quite exciting! We hope you enjoy this small wrap-up of everything that has been going on! Keep your eyes open for the next one and we wish you had a spooky Halloween!

~Simon

Satellite Data providers constellr and ScanWorld sign partnership for high-value agriculture data



Simon Pacheco Wolf

18.09.2021

On the 16th of September 2021, we announced our Memorandum of Understanding with ScanWorld.

ScanWorld is a Belgium-based company that delivers products based on Earth Observation data, seeking to support regenerative agriculture and forestry worldwide.

ScanWorld also is developing an infrastructure to deliver affordable, easily accessible hyperspectral imagery and analytics

With this new partnership, constellr seeks, alongside ScanWorld to achieve the following:

• To combine our respective thermal infrared and hyperspectral imagery expertise to deliver high-value Earth Observation data, enabling a broad range of sustainable agricultural applications. Such as mitigating potential crop diminution by detection of diseases and measurement of water necessities before irreversible damage occurs.
• We also aim to work together, to create actionable insight and encourage more efficient use of resources and increased sustainability in the agricultural sector.
• As well as to ensure future interoperability with existing programs, such as the Copernicus Sentinels or the Surface Biology and Geology System at NASA.



You can further read about our partnership at Satnews and Satellite Evolution Group whom both have published exciting articles about this new thrilling chapter at constellr.

constellr is excited and ready to work with ScanWorld to help us drive towards high-quality products that will help the agricultural sector, both in affordability and production.

Discussing, Progressing and Celebrating in May and June



Simon Pacheco Wolf

09.07.2021

Welcome, to another (really) amazing and (totally) not late constellr blogpost!

We apologize for the blank space between the last blogpost and this one. Things should go back to normal from here on!.

That being said, buckle up to hear about everything constellr has been up to the last few months!

• We celebrated constellr's first birthday! We've come such a long way but there is still work to do and many things to achieve. Thank you for being with us thus far!
• Our CTO Marius Bierdel pitched at the KTUR - Knowledge Transfer Upper Rhine! Allowing us the opportunity to bring our ideas and visions closer to our region!
• Embryo Ventures covered us in one of their latest articles, we are thankful for helping us carry our vision of creating data to help to monitor land surface to the world. Read the article here
• We have been selected by the RESPOND Accelerator to be mentored by their foundation. We are proud to be part of such a supportive and growing community, helping us promote our vision to tackle humankind's food security problems.
• Equally exciting was to be selected by STARTUP WATCHLIST promoting Responsible Leadership. We are proud to be amongst the top 7 DACH regions, specializing in space.
• Our co-founder and CTO Marius Bierdel was interviewed by SWR and it has even been broadcasted air on the radio! Marius gave great insight into how we want to improve the life of crops with precise temperature data globally. Shooting our satellites to the International Space Station will be only one of many exciting news in the upcoming months!
• We took part in the biggest pitching event on the planet! ChangeNOW helped us spread the message about actionable social and environmental change. It was an amazing and breathtaking event; we recommend you to read more about it here.
• Our beloved "Space Pioneer" Max Gulde was a part of the latest issue of Beyond Exclamation Magazine. It was empowering to be able to have such a golden opportunity to share our vision with some of the founders in industries such as nanotechnology, healthcare and telecommunication. Read the entire article here! (We're at page 50!)
• Lastly, we had a great time taking part in the Start-up meets Agency hosted by German Aerospace Center (DLR) amongst the distiguished guests Thomas Jarzombek, Bulent Altan, Daniel Metzler and Frank Salzgeber in an organized format called "Start-ups meets Agency".

As we take on new challenges, we advance and our voice expands, we want to take a moment to thank everyone who has supported us, so we could get as far as we have. The future is bright and we are more than excited to see how everything will play out.

Blogposts should come back to normalcy now that yours truly has finished his exams:) I appreciate the patience!

~Simon

Starting the year strong with January and February



Simon Pacheco Wolf

18.03.2021

What a beautiful start of the year, so much to do... Oh? What do you mean it's already March!? Ok, ok! I'm once again a little bit late, but good things make you wait, they say!

So buckle up, ladies and gents, for the January and February constellr blogpost!

• Together with other Newspace companies, we published a letter to the European Commissioner Thierry Breton, intending to further the new space sector and reduce entry barriers for working with ESA - European Space Agency.
• constellr has been participating as one of six start-ups from ESA BIC Hessen and BW at the EBAN Space Investor Forum, it has been great fun thus far!
• We've announced that we took part in this year's SXSW we were one of two German start-ups that made it to the finals at SXSW. The event took place from March 16-20, 2021!
• We'd like to congratulate MolyWorks Materials Corporation for winning SXSW's Innovative Worlds category!
• As well as holoride for winning the SXSW show!



• Equally exciting, we were featured in TC News!.
• Our CEO Max had the pleasure to appear on a podcast with space investor Raphael Roettgen from E2MC Ventures, check it out!
• We announced our team-up with OHB!
• Max did not have enough podcasts this year, since he was part of a second one by Octagon by B living.

As you can see, this was quite the start of the year! With news all around and with SXSW virtual event taking place this month, March is shaping up to be quite eventful as well! But that's for the Simon of the future to worry about ;)

Stay tuned for what's coming next and as always, best wishes from your constellr team!

~Simon

The 2020 constellr recap



Simon Pacheco Wolf

15.01.2021

2020 was, for all of us, a challenge, a test that we had to overcome, but for every bad thing 2020 has brought us, there was a good thing too.

In celebration of the new year, we want to highlight some of the most important happenings for the company in 2020, while looking forward to what 2021 has in store for us.



These are (mostly) in chronological order, enjoy!

• We started the year strong, becoming one of Copernicus' Accelerator portfolio companies!
• In April, we signed an agreement with OKAPI: Orbits to keep New Space all clean and well taken care of! We were also part of ESA BIC Baden-Württemberg!
• May was an eventful little month. Want to know why? Well, yours truly starting working at the company, of course...! Alright, alright, we also finally became an official company :).
• Later in May, we were announced to be one of the winners of the 2020´s digital innovation award given to us by the German Federal Ministry of Economics.
• In May we also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Tenchijin.
• Throughout the year we had many incredible (and safe!) pitch events, like the pitch event in Grünhof in front of the Black Forest Busines Angles we held in July.
• constellr was proud to be one of the winners of the highly esteemed ESA - European Space Agency Startup Competition in early July.
• In August, constellr started participating in the CDL (Creative Destruction Lab) program. A nonprofit organization that delivers an objectives-based program for massively scalable, seed-stage, science- and technology-based companies.
• In early September, we had the pleasure to sing another Memorandum of Understanding with NanoAvionics.
• The end of the year was equally exciting, on December we got our first launch contract signed via Fraunhofer, giving us the capability to prove the quality of our technology in the International Space Station.

Everything that happened this year, wouldn't have been possible without all the incredible people that make up our team, let this yearly recap be thanks to all of them.



We hope you enjoyed the first yearly recap of constellr, maybe you learned a thing or two that you didn't know had occurred this year,

We look forward to making 2021 an amazing year for all of us. Stay safe and stay tuned!

~Simon

To Space and Beyond



Simon Pacheco Wolf

18.12.2020

To many of us space has always been the final frontier to cross. Today it is with great pleasure that we announce: we are going to space, baby!

We will have the opportunity to show our technology on the International Space Station's (ISS) Bartolomeo platform.

The Bartolomeo platform was developed by Airbus to demonstrate that they can provide fast, low-cost access to space in a new space approach.

With the help of Fraunhofer and Airbus the constellr Technology will be on its pathway to becoming a part of the ISS and show to the world our approach for a low-cost, high-performance temperature monitoring technology.

constellr thanks Airbus for helping us move one step further with our mission to space and a better world.



We also invite you to read our official statement on our LinkedIn account for a more in-depth explanation about this new exciting development.

To close things up, I wanted to tell you to keep your eyes open for the October-November blogpost! We at constellr wish you great festivities!

~Simon

An Action Packed August and September



Simon Pacheco Wolf

27.10.2020

Welcome to the (totally not late for schedule) summary of the August and September events at constellr!

We hope you are ready because there's a lot to cover so buckle up!

• We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with NanoAvionics an international nano-satellite manufacturer and mission integrator. We look forward to building and sharpening our relationship with them and we can't wait to see what awaits us in outer space.
• constellr is now participating in the CDL (Creative Destruction Lab) program. A nonprofit organization that delivers an objectives-based program for massively scalable, seed-stage, science- and technology-based companies.
• We have been selected by SmartGreenAccelerator to be funded by Start-up BW Pre-Seed program. We are incredibly excited by this opportunity and as always, we'll show all that we got!
• We announced that we are among the Falling Walls finalists. You can watch our video on how we plan to "Break The Walls of Water Scarcity" here.
• In other exciting news, we also participated in a meeting with Thomas Jazombek within the "Get started by Bitkom".
• Last week, we also had the pleasure to release our first "Faces of constellr" blog post, we presented some of our team members. You can read more about our newest members, Daniel, Sai and, Alex in our "Faces of constellr" blog post!

  Welcome to the team, guys!

Well, wasn't that all very exciting? I sure thought it was! We hope this exciting news were worth the wait!

You know the drill! Stay tuned for the October blogpost next month which (totally) won't come out late.

~Simon

Faces Of constellr



Simon Pacheco Wolf

10.09.2020

While we are certainly proud about what we send to space, this would not be possible without all those who remain on the ground: Our team of enthusiastic members, ranging from aerospace engineers, data scientists to software architects, and business developers.

This is why we want to dedicate an entire blog post (and probably more in the future) to the newest faces of constellr

This post is dedicated to Alex, Sai and, Daniel.



• Saiprasad Barke, or as we call him, Sai is our Software engineer here at constellr, currently working on our soon-to-be-released “secret”.
• Sai is completing his masters in computer science and specializing in machine learning and computer vision.
• In his free time, he likes to practice martial arts and cook. (Maybe he could invite me to eat one of these days? ;) )



• Daniel Laun is a mathematician who focused his studies on stochastic modeling in biology and neuroscience. He is also responsible for our software development team!
• Daniel has an interest in Software engineering which led him to work as a developer besides his studies. He loves being outdoors and in his free time enjoys hiking and bouldering (he is also, remarkably better than me...!).



• Alexander Stottmeister, or Alex for shorts is a physicist and a mathematician that has worked on mathematical aspects of quantum physics.
• Alex got involved in constellr after returning from Rome after a research stay there funded by the Humboldt Foundation.
• Alexander even studied physics with Max. Alex will be involved in the overall management of scientific aspects and all fundraising related to it.
• Lastly, Alexander enjoys hiking and cycling (he even went on a cycling trip through China some years ago!).

Expanding and becoming more than just a company is important to us. We hope that with this insight about our latest team members you can see how we strive for all faces of constellr to be appreciated and recognized.

They are also fun to be around when grilling :)

~Simon

July of Angels and Accelerators



Simon Pacheco Wolf

23.08.2020

July has been an incredible month and at constellr we've had a blast!

Here are some things that happened this July:

• constellr became part of Invest Horizon, a fantastic Accelerator Programme, helping us already now for preparing us for a Series A.
• We had an amazing pitch event in Grünhof in front of the Black Forst Business Angels and we are happy to have sparked some interest.

  

• We had the opportunity to present our vision with the Minister of Economics of Baden-Württemberg Nichole Hoffmeister-Kraut.

  

• Last but not least we are also one of the winners of the pitching event from the Digital start-up competition. If you speak German (and have our sense of humour ;) ) you can watch our video for this competition here.

This month was packed with events and new and exciting happenings. We at constellr are have been enjoying our summer and goodness is it hot! Go out and enjoy! We promise to enjoy the sun whilst working hard. But that's just the PR-guy speaking :)

Stay tuned for August,

~Simon

A June of Good BBQ



Simon Pacheco Wolf

18.07.2020

Hey! Stop right there! Are you ready to hear all about our amazing June?!

Hopefully, you're ready for all the crazy things that happened last month at constellr!

• We started information blog posts on LinkedIn, with the help of a new member of our team, which we will present later in this post.
• We made third place in the ESA Startup Competition, you can read more about how much this means to us in this post!
• After months of isolation, we finally had our first team-BBQ! We had a grand time sharing some beers and grilling all day long...! Also, we finally got to make a team photo!

  

• As teased before, we want to end this post by welcoming our latest team member, Rosa Schmidt!

  Rosa is 24 years old and is working part-time at constellr as our marketing manager, in the past, she co-founded her own media production company

  during her university studies and she has a background in strategic marketing.
  She's currently coordinating our marketing! She also has a very charming British accent!

  

  Welcome to the team Rosa!

Our team is ever-growing, just like our impatience to tell you more about the future of constellr, but for now, this is everything we share!

Stay tuned for what's coming!

Winners of the ESA'S startup competition



Simon Pacheco Wolf

04.07.2020

Today, we have been announced as one of the winners of the ESA - European Space Agency startup competition.

We wanted to share some words and feelings, to tell you, what this price means to us.

On this momentous occasion, there are many memories and emotions that arise from very deep within our team. We are ecstatic, beaming with pride.

We have spent countless nights working, family-time has been sacrificed and we've gone through an uncountable amount of unsuccessful proposals. For our team, our determination and really for our happiness, this price shows that hard work and continuity pays off.

We think maybe the most touching fact about this whole ordeal is something that sits right in the heart and soul of the project. Because this idea was realized when we applied for the ESA Small Sat Sentinel Challange in the Copernicus Masters in 2017.

As a reminder, this challenge searched to create the most valuable mission concept in cooperation with the Sentinels for the least amount of money.

The heart of our project, that idea to create a high-resolution thermal mission on the basis of CubeSats was created back then. As all projects do, it underwent a massive technological evolution.

Problems appeared, challenges and difficulties, but the soul of the project stayed the same. That's our strongest and most unique selling point: We are a cooperative mission and we designed everything to work together with existing satellite infrastructure

This is the reason we can be as small and cost-effective and precise as we are. We work together, we cooperate with the giants.



So, to make it short, this prize, in particular the support and mentoring package, means that we are now recognized by the institution we set out to cooperate with.

So we are looking forward to working with you in a close feedback loop and I am 100% sure that our mission will make quantum leaps with your support, bringing its benefits a step closer to reality.

Maybe one day we will be ESA's third party missions and that day, another dream of ours would come true. That's what this prize is for us, a door for more dreams to come true.

Thank you for everything.

A May of Company



Simon Pacheco Wolf

11.06.2020

We are back and happy to update you on our progress this May of 2020, which has been an incredibly eventful month.



Alright! Alright! So, what happened in May?

• We announce our Memorandum of Understanding with Tenchijin, a space venture company founded by JAXA staff.
• How do you become a digital innovator? Well, apparently we know since we are one of the winners of this year's digital innovation award, organized by the German Federal Ministry of Economics.
• We are honored to be amongst the top 10 selected by ESA within their Startup Challenge.
• Along with our friends from Hawa Dawa, we are nominated for The Europas!.
• Lastly AND more importantly. We are now constellr GmbH. You could say we are out of this Earth excited and proud, to officially be a company!

Stay tuned for more details! Maybe next time you hear from us, it will be from low earth orbit, who knows?

This year's digital innovators and new partnerships



Simon Pacheco Wolf

26.05.2020

We at constellr are overjoyed to be one of the winners of this year's digital innovation award, given to us by the German Federal Ministry of Economics.

Winning awards is always something we are proud of and celebrate, but we are even happier to see the German government's support for constellr's endeavours to raise the world's food production by 50% before 2050.



But wait! That's not all the good news we have for today!

We are also happy to announce our Memorandum of Understanding with Tenchijin, a space venture company founded by JAXA staff.

We are looking forward to cooperating with them to provide benefits not only for current but also for future agriculture, in places such as Japan and Asia.



Our team is always working it's hardest to improve the world, one satellite at a time.

Things are going really well, expect to hear more good news in the near future!

The hot, the cake and the employee



Simon Pacheco Wolf

11.05.2020

The world is a tad crazy these days and at constellr, we try to play our part.

Want to know what these crazy things are?

• Being hot can be good. Being amongst the hottest is actually great: We are nominated for The Europas! It doesn't get much hotter than this. If you give us in the AgTech and our friends Hawa Dawa in the ClimateTech category a vote, you'll make our day!
• Even amid the pandemic and many minor obstacles ... We exist!
• We are hiring. Who? Well, maybe you. We will start posting job descriptions on LinkedIn soon!
• Sadly, we have come to the conclusion that, cake is not an option to feed humanity, but what is?
• To finish with the news, this month's random fact: More than 70% of global freshwater consumption is linked to agriculture! For this reason, increasing the water efficiency in agriculture is so important

Before we wrap things up, please welcome Simon, our newest team member and first intern at constellr. Simon has a multinational background and is fluent in Spanish, English, and German.



He currently lives and works in Freiburg and supports us in all things social media (like this post). Glad to have you with us, Simon! Things have been awesome for the project these past few weeks, despite of complications things are moving behind the curtains and we are impatient to tell you all about it.

Stay tuned for what's coming!

Staying Seriously Serious



Max Gulde

01.04.2020

Within the current chaos, at constellr, we are doing our best to find the bright side of working from home.



The Bright Side of Life

At constellr, we are now all enjoying every lunch at home with our loved ones.

At constellr, we have now a lot more time to play with our kids.

At constellr, we save time every day from not commuting to work.

At constellr, we enjoy the sunny afternoon hours outdoors and instead work in the evenings.

At constellr, as we are mostly engineers and physicists, we are already well-trained in social distancing.

What else happened in march?

All contracting for launching and operating our demonstrator in space is well on the way.

We had the pleasure to pitch (remotely) at the invite-only ESA Investment Forum and got some great feedback.

How do you survive times of economic uncertainty as a startup? Our friends from Seraphim Space Camp had some great advice.

We are honoured to be part of the ESA BIC Baden-Württemberg.

We signed an agreement with OKAPI:Orbits to keep New Space clean and tidy.

Work on our first EO product (let us surprise you) is going as planned.

Stay tuned for more details!

Two Nights in Paris



Max Gulde

06.03.2020

What’s better than pitching below a Concorde? Pitching below two of them. Even at cryogenic conditions in Paris, we managed to win the Innovation Challenge at Paris Space Week.



In Other News

How far is it to Stuttgart? It depends where you are, right? No, it doesn’t. To Stuttgart, it’s exactly 3.26156 light-years = 1 parsec = our next accelerator. We have been selected to be one of one hundred startups to participate. Nice.

PARSEC is a business accelerator supporting the creation of new Earth Observation-based products and services. The accelerator targets SMEs, start-ups, entrepreneurs and researchers who want to have an impact on the emerging Food, Energy and Environment sectors. With the support of PARSEC, our ideas will be developed into solutions fueled by the benefits of EO.

Starting with the boot camp in Stuttgart from the 27.-29th of March, we are going to continue our journey to find new cooperation partners. We are looking forward to jointly work on our goal to enable new services in the agriculture sector and other industries based on our high-resolution Land Surface Temperature Monitoring mission.

Sustainable space: Together with our partner, Dr. Gerwin Wulf, from the University of Freiburg, we have been selected by the Sustainability Center Freiburg as one of the startups to be supported by their funding program. Thanks!

We are proud to announce that we have been selected for the Exist Tech Transfer Program of the Federal Ministry of Economics. Starting this week, we have funding for the next 2.5 years and a complete in-orbit-demonstration of our technology. Let’s spell that out again. W-E A-R-E G-O-I-N-G T-O S-P-A-C-E. Woohoo!

Stay tuned for more details!

With Copernicus into 2020



Max Gulde

24.01.2020

We are honoured to be one of the Copernicus Accelerator portfolio companies.



Copernicus Accelerator

The Copernicus Accelerator is a 12-month tailor-made coaching programme which provides a challenging, inspiring and inclusive setting for you to take your idea or project to the next level. Imagine having access to the right tools, support and advice to turn your business case into an impactful commercial solution. What if you could draw on an impressive network of like-minded innovators, take advantage of informative monthly training sessions and benefit from consistent one-on-one guidance from an expert mentor of your choice? Well, constellr is now part of this network.

After winning the Copernicus Masters ESA 4.0 Challenge 2019, out vision to revolutionise the temperature monitoring market has been featured on the Copernicus Accelerator homepage. In particular, our planet's land surface temperature is an important indicator of environmental changes and can help us to monitor and forecast critical factors in agriculture, natural disasters and infrastructure management. constellr will answer the emerging market need for this data by offering daily global coverage and unprecedented spatial resolution.

For more timely information, please follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

For more information on Abu Dhabi



Max Gulde

19.01.2020

CLIX here. But first of all, a Happy New Year 2020! We have been selected as on of 42 finalists out of more than 1400 applications to enter the Climate Innovation Exchange Startup Competition during the World Future Energy Summit 2020.



World Future Energy Summit

The annual World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi is the leading global industry event and exhibition for future energy, cleantech and sustainability. Bringing together government and business leaders, 800 specialist exhibitors and 33,500 visitors from 170 countries, it showcases pioneering technologies and ground-breaking thinking in energy, energy efficiency, water, solar, waste and smart cities.

CLIX – the Climate Innovations Exchange, launched in 2018, supports the UAE’s Ministry of Climate Change and Environment strategy to enable the sourcing and funding of climate change solutions and technologies. CLIX is a unique global marketplace located in Abu Dhabi, UAE, a World Future Energy Summit initiative and a part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week connecting entrepreneurs, innovators and investors on a global level to enable partnerships that will power climate change solutions through knowledge, innovation and funding.

First: Thank you, Carbon Limiting Technologies, for selecting us as one of the finalists in the sustainability in space column of the event. As only one out of six space startups in this event, we felt honored to have been so centrally visible right next to the UAE Space Agency. Furthermore, we were completely blown away by the level of professionalism and enthusiasm presented during the 4-day event. To make it short: Fantastic venue coupled with a great atmosphere and many, many important contacts. Alf shukran!

Startups, if you ever have the chance, we can highly recommend this event. Nowhere else have we ever had so many intriguing discussions and opportunities offered in such a short amount of time. I must confess that I did not consider the UAE as an important player in the space sector before I visited, and I am happy to say that I was wrong.

And the winner is...



Max Gulde

10.12.2019

… well, us, of course. constellr! During this year's European Space Week in Helsinki, our nifty little start-up won the one and only Space Hans (We are German, after all, and not allowed to use the name "Oscar" anymore.) of the ESA Copernicus 4.0 Challenge.



Feed humanity

The United Nations predicts that humankind will need about 50% more food within the next 30 years. 50% more food without a substantial increase in agricultural area and despite climate change. The only way out is to make farming more efficient.

With constellr, we will install the world’s first system in orbit, which can daily and globally access the state of health of our crops on the single field level. And we can do so at 3% of the cost of traditional systems, using our patent-pending miniaturization technology. Without any compromises.

This system will deliver data to address a multi-billion US dollar market and support political and industrial decision-makers in better predicting and substantially increasing crop yield, in timely reacting on environmental changes, and in dramatically saving our planet's most precious resource: freshwater.

We are happy to state that we have funding to launch our in-orbit-demonstration and start building the constellation by 2021. So, if you are looking for high-resolution thermal infrared data, look no further. Contact us!

“constellr provides an intriguing opportunity to benefit our stressedout biosphere: The idea does not only propose cutting-edge sensor technology to be installed in orbit, it also provides for the CubeSat to carry it and for the launch to make all that happen within a short time frame. This package is a unique feature, and it has convinced me to vote for it.”

– Dr Thomas Beer, Copenicus Policy Coordinator, European Space Agency (ESA-ESRIN)

Double Trouble in Houston and Bremen



Max Gulde

16.11.2019

Yes, you heard correctly: Meet us next week in the US and in Europe, where we are attending both major space expos. Christian Mittermaier will pitch us to the finals in Houston, Max Gulde will impress the audience of the panel session in Bremen.




America’s Commercial Space Conference and Exposition

SpaceCom addresses the strategic issues impacting the commercial space industry that will enable your business to set a clear course to gain a competitive advantage in the coming trillion-dollar space economy.

constellr will be joining SpaceCom to compete as a semi-finalist in the Top 30. We will also be hosting exhibit #652 in the StartUp pavilion.

Europe’s meeting place for space business, technology & innovation

Space Tech Expo Europe returns to Bremen, Germany on 19-21 November 2019 drawing attendance of more than 4000 industry leaders, decision makers, engineers, specifiers and buyers to meet manufacturers and the entire space supply chain.

The free-to-attend trade fair will showcase the very latest technology from technical designers, electrical and avionic sub-systems suppliers, manufacturers and components through to systems integrators for civil, military and commercial (aero) space. More than 400 leading suppliers at the event include ArianeGroup, OHB, Fraunhofer, Baader Planetarium GmbH, ISIS – Innovative Solutions In Space BV, Tyvak, SCISYS, EXOLAUNCH, and PTScientists GmbH.

We are happy to meet you at Space Tech Expo in Bremen. Find us at our stand 5031 and listen to Max’s talk on Thursday on “Increasing Tech Capabilities to Strengthen Data Applications for AgriTech, Urban Management and Environmental Monitoring” session on the Smallsats Conference, 10:15 – 11:00 am.

New for 2019: Smallsats at Space Tech Expo Europe

Space Tech Expo Europe 2019 will provide a focused exhibit and sessions area dedicated to Smallsats highlighting opportunities for this fast-growing sector of the industry, including:

• 70+ exhibiting companies covering the Smallsat and launcher supply chain, including manufacturing, applications, operations and data processing
• Three days of dedicated forum sessions specific to Smallsats
• Product demonstrations showcasing cutting-edge technology
• Startup company innovation displays

The Final(s) Frontier



Max Gulde

07.11.2019

Oh wow, that is some awesome piece of news: constellr has been nominated as one of three finalists for the ESA COPERNICUS 4.0 CHALLENGE!



Copernicus Masters

The Copernicus Masters is an international competition that awards prizes to innovative solutions, developments and ideas for business and society based on Earth observation data. Big data produced by Earth observation holds huge potential for the creation of innovative products and services.

A wide variety of industries and areas of public interest stand to profit from the advances of the Copernicus programme.

AZO launched the Copernicus Masters in 2011 on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA) and with strong support of world-class partners as part of their mission to foster the User Uptake of Copernicus services.

The Copernicus Masters has developed into the moving force promoting cutting-edge solutions. Annually, different prize categories tackle global challenges with revolutionary competition entries in the fields of agriculture, energy, health and digital transport – just to name a few.

Register now for the European Space Week 2019!

Deep Tech Pioneer



Max Gulde

01.11.2019

What a way to end this week: Out of over 5000 applications constellr has been selected to be one of the most promising deep tech start ups to "solve humanity’s biggest challenges".





We are deeply proud and honoured to receive the invitation to present our approach and give insights into our developments during next year's Global Summit in Paris on 12th-13th March 2020!

Hello Tomorrow

Unlocking the power of deep tech to solve our toughest global challenges. A competition designed for science and deep tech entrepreneurs.

Hello Tomorrow believes "in the need for radical transformation in the way we eat, move, power and run our industries. This transformation can be supported by several waves of powerful technologies. What we refer to today as “deep technologies”, cutting-edge tech applied in digital, quantum physics, biology and new materials, offer new innovative production methods. These technologies hold unparalleled potential, yet require unprecedented resources, energy and collaboration to bring positive change to our planet, society and industries."

Happy to join!

Seraphim Space Camp



Max Gulde

27.06.2019

Finally! Nine intense weeks are lying behind us. During this time, we've been guided by Seraphim Space Camp and their selected partners to rethink our approaches, focus our strategy and sharpen our message.





The hard work culminated in one fantastic event, where seven very promising start ups presented themselves during InvestorDay. So proud, that constellr was selected to be one of them! With the insights we gained, we will now continue our way to deliver high-resolution thermal infrared EO data to enable "thermal intelligence".

It was a pleasure to meet all of you! Good luck and all the best for the future Hawa Dawa, VEOWARE SPACE, aXenic, Methera, Trik and Xona!

Keep the pace, change the world. And last but not least, again a very big thank you to the whole Seraphim Space Camp team! Keep up the good work!

Seraphim Space Camp

Backed by Seraphim Capital, the world’s only SpaceTech Venture Fund, Seraphim Space Camp is a programme dedicated to the rapidly growing SpaceTech start-up sector. "We’re on a mission to help Seed & Series A SpaceTech companies become sector-specific ‘investment-ready’ and to facilitate commercial relationships with unique space corporate partners."