SatSure is one of the most talked about space tech startups that has recently achieved unicorn status in India. The unique geospatial big data platform from SatSure combines satellite imagery, in-house algorithms, weather, IoT, drone imagery, social and economic datasets, cadastral, and other data sources to produce location-specific insights almost instantly.
It is a cutting-edge decision analytics that makes use of developments in machine learning, big data analytics, and satellite remote sensing to offer solutions to questions about a wide area in the fields of agriculture, banking & financial services, infrastructure, and climate change mitigation. So, if you are interested in knowing the business model of this startup and its initial struggle, delve deeper below.
What is SatSure in Simple Terms?
The most complicated issues on Earth might be resolved by a simple image taken by a satellite. The layers in that image, when combined with data and technology, can offer distinctive knowledge and insight into almost any location on the planet. However, only those with extensive expertise can extract and analyze useful data from that specific imagery, even though the geospatial data could assist researchers, members of the private sector, and policymakers in addressing pressing issues. SatSure, a deep tech startup based in Bengaluru, seeks to develop and supply that knowledge.
Founders
Former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) researchers Prateep Basu, Rashmit Singh Sukhmani, and Abhishek Raju founded SatSure, which uses machine learning (ML) algorithms to analyze petabytes of satellite imagery from a variety of sources and combine it with the weather, and internet of things, social, and economic datasets, among many others, to produce location- and industry-specific actionable insights.
Prateep, a co-founder of Satsure who grew up in a small town in one of India’s least developed regions, had firsthand experience with farmers who were distressed by droughts, heavy rains, weak market power, and low incomes. He founded SatSure intending to address structural changes in agriculture finance and policymaking through technology, which can help improve the livelihoods of farmers, especially the small landholders, after enduring the rigors of being a space technology practitioner for almost 7 years. Tens of thousands of farmers in India moved to the cities to work as drivers because it paid more than farming, which was the catalyst for the conversation in an Uber conversation. Making capital readily and affordably available to farmers for investment is necessary to reviving farming as a profitable and desirable industry.
The SatSure team has been working on the value chain to unlock the limitless potential of satellite imagery for the past five years. The startup started with a straightforward tech stack and eventually developed standardized plug-and-play SaaS tools. Today, it serves about 34 enterprise clients throughout Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Along with state government agencies and research companies, it collaborates with companies like ICICI Bank, Reliance General Insurance, and Samunnati Finance to use its present and predictive analytics capabilities.
Company Values and Vision
The people who work for SatSure are their pillars, and they take the topic of human capital management very seriously. They play a crucial role in SatSure’s value creation, and the founders make sure that workers are motivated and quick learners at work by implementing processes like continuous feedback, multiple career paths within the company, and subscribing them to the impact of their individual contributions on the company’s growth.
The guiding principles of SatSure are built upon Dr. Vikram Sarabhai’s vision for the Indian space programme, which is to “Be Second to None” in the use of space technology to address societal issues. The SatSure team appears to be unrivalled in commercialising data from space to address issues at the intersection of sustainability of food, water, and energy security thanks to its distinctive decision intelligence framework approach.
SaaS Croptails
With the aim of expanding into international markets like Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, the space technology startup has acquired SaaS platform Croptails for an undisclosed sum. The startup has plans to transform Croptails into a no-code platform for agricultural businesses to prototype and create custom tools that can be integrated with Sparta datasets from SatSure.
The Indore-based startup OEPP Innovations Private Limited came up with the idea for Croptails in 2018 and incorporated it the following year. Supervisors or field officers use the web and Android app CropTails as a tool for information or data collection, which is then recorded and digitalized on the information about farmers, farms, and crops.
SatSure Sparta
In order to produce timely, place-specific, and actionable insights that can be used by agritech companies, agrifood corporates, and financial services firms, SatSure Sparta is an open innovation data platform that allows the combination of satellite imagery with weather, IoT, social, and economic datasets, among others.
To promote the development of Proof of Concept (PoC) and test use cases using the limited, free data sets available on SatSure Sparta Explorer, Open Innovation encourages individuals, startups, and organisations. The free datasets on SatSure Sparta are thus solely used for Open Innovation, which is focused on developing small, reliable models for a small area before testing and validating them for scale-up. Open Innovation has no commercial engagement and serves only as a medium to develop innovation across the agricultural value chain. Once the use cases and Proof of Concepts (PoCs) have been evaluated and approved by the relevant people and organisations, they can get in touch with SatSure to scale their offerings or solutions using a Co-Innovation model.
SatSure’s Clientele
Banks, insurance and reinsurance firms, multilateral organizations and governmental bodies like the FAO, World Bank, Ministry of Agriculture, and private BFSI firms like ICICI Bank, Cholamandalam General Insurance, and Royal Sundaram, to name a few, make up SatSure’s clientele.
Future Plans
Since their clients are from a variety of industries, including agriculture, the BFSI and infrastructure sectors, as well as government, SatSure’s future prospects are global and cross-sectoral. Investments in agriculture, infrastructure, energy, and related technologies must be complemented with investments in financial services and policy-making that support the development of these sectors through improved credit flows, risk mitigation techniques, and capacity building to handle new technologies as the effects of climate change become more pronounced with more frequent droughts and natural disasters.
SatSure has expanded its operations across four continents today after three years of operation and growing to a 30-member team from the fields of space science, agriculture, oil & gas, insurance, and finance without raising any institutional capital.
