CPE News Brief (10.5.2022) – Spexi Geospatial Inc. has raised US $5.5 million in seed funding led by Blockchange Ventures with participation from Protocol Labs, InDro Robotics, Alliance DAO, FJ Labs, Dapper Labs, Vinny Lingham, Adam Jackson, and CyLon Ventures.
Founded by Bill Lakeland, Spexi Geospatial is developing Spexigon, the world’s “first standardized, ‘Fly-to-Earn’ drone imagery platform, powered by crypto.”
With our new Fly-to-Earn model, people who own consumer drones will be able to earn $SPEXI tokens and dollars while building a high resolution base layer of the earth.
It is our hope that soon any organization or individual will be able to use the imagery collected by the Spexigon platform to make better decisions.
photo credit: Spexi
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We’ve Secured $5.5 million USD to Democratize Geospatial Data
OCT 4, 2022
Today, we’re excited to announce that Spexi has secured $5.5 million USD in seed funding to pursue our vision of collecting Earth’s most important data with drones.
Blockchange Ventures is leading the round with participation from Protocol Labs, InDro Robotics, Alliance DAO, FJ Labs, Dapper Labs, Vinny Lingham, Adam Jackson, and CyLon Ventures.
We’re thrilled and honoured to be supported by some of the brightest minds in crypto, Web3, two sided marketplaces, drones, and commercial aviation.
From Niche Technology to Global Platform
Spexi began as a SaaS platform that enables organizations to easily plan autonomous drone flights, task drone pilots, and process aerial imagery to create actionable and sharable insights about our planet.
Today, drone imagery is typically collected on a project by project basis, over relatively small areas by individual organizations. The data collected remains private, with little benefit to others.
There is also substantial friction involved in collecting aerial imagery, including managing hardware, training and coordinating pilots, standardizing processes, and handling massive data sets.
These challenges have so far prevented drone use and imagery production at scale, but that’s about to change.
Introducing Spexigon & Fly-to-Earn
Now, with the closing of our seed round we’re excited to announce the next evolution of our platform.
Spexigon, built by the team at Spexi, is the world’s first standardized, ‘Fly-to-Earn’ drone imagery platform, powered by crypto.
With our new Fly-to-Earn model, people who own consumer drones will be able to earn $SPEXI tokens and dollars while building a high resolution base layer of the earth.
It is our hope that soon any organization or individual will be able to use the imagery collected by the Spexigon platform to make better decisions.
How Will It Work?
Each mission pilots fly will help create an ultra-high resolution base layer image of the earth.
This new base layer will enable governments and organizations of all sizes to make better decisions about real world assets like buildings, utilities, infrastructure, risk and natural resources, without requiring people on the ground.
By using Spexigon, organizations that require high-resolution aerial imagery will no longer need to own their own drones or hire their own pilots.
Instead, they’ll use our web and mobile app to search for and purchase imagery.
Data buyers will then be able to use a variety of internal and external tools to put the imagery to use.
Our goal is to remove friction from the process by collecting high resolution aerial imagery in advance of demand, and then making it easily available online.
A New Way to Earn
Pilots who choose to collect data for Spexigon will be rewarded in crypto tokens and in some cases dollars (depending on the mission).
After going through initial online training, pilots will simply head outdoors with their drone, and use the Spexigon app to begin flying.
The app will contain a map of the earth overlaid with hexagonal zones called “Spexigons”. Spexigons that are open and ready to fly will be easily visible so pilots can choose an area close to them and begin collecting imagery.
To ensure that imagery is captured in a safe, standardized, and repeatable way, our app controls each pilot’s drone automatically while they supervise the flight.
Although our app will do the flying, pilots will always be in command and will have the ability to take back manual control at any time if need arises.
What’s Next?
With backing from some of the best investors and advisors in the world and plans to launch in Spring of 2023, the building continues full steam ahead!
To learn more & to get involved, please join our Discord or Telegram and introduce yourself!
For press inquiries or questions about ordering data, contact: press@spexigon.com
For press, investor, or other inquiries, please get in touch here: hello@spexigon.com