The LSE Directory / Alternative data
SpaceKnow is a satellite data analytics company that applies proprietary AI and machine learning to optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, sourced from providers including the European Space Agency, Planet, ICEYE and Satellogic, to detect and quantify physical and economic activity at specific sites: factories, ports, mines, retail locations, construction projects and military installations. Rather than selling raw imagery, the company packages its analysis into structured outputs, indices, time series and monitoring alerts, delivered through its Guardian platform and a set of named datasets. Its flagship dataset is the China Satellite Manufacturing Index (SMI), which tracks industrial activity across roughly 6,000 sites in China using satellite, street-map and spectral data and is published three times a week; it is distributed on the Bloomberg Terminal and marketed as an independent read on Chinese industrial output that does not depend on official government statistics. SpaceKnow's primary customers are hedge funds, long-only asset managers and quantitative investors who use the indices as alternative-data inputs, alongside defense, intelligence and government agencies that use the same imagery pipeline for surveillance and situational awareness. This dual commercial and government customer base, and the focus on delivering pre-analysed indices rather than raw imagery tiles, differentiates it from imagery-first competitors such as Orbital Insight. The company was founded in San Francisco in 2013 by Pavel Machalek, who had previously analysed data from NASA's Kepler space telescope, and Jerry Javornicky, a Czech entrepreneur who had earlier founded the email client eM Client; Javornicky remains chief executive. SpaceKnow raised a 4 million dollar Series A round in February 2017 led by Reflex Capital and BlueYard, with OTB Ventures also participating, for total disclosed funding of 5.45 million dollars. Public case studies on its own site include tracking sanctioned Russian vessels and assessing the extent of the April 2024 Dubai flooding. On 30 June 2026, SpaceKnow announced a partnership with satellite operator Satellogic to combine SpaceKnow's analytics with Satellogic's imaging constellation, including its upcoming Merlin satellites, aimed at commercial and government customers wanting continuous, high-frequency monitoring; the companies described the arrangement as extending persistent global intelligence and said further product detail would follow the first Merlin launch.
