The LSE Directory / Alternative data
Spire Global is a space-to-cloud data and analytics company that designs, builds and operates its own constellation of LEMUR CubeSats together with a global ground-station network, collecting data from orbit and delivering it to customers as APIs and dashboards. Its current business lines are weather and climate intelligence built on GNSS radio-occultation atmospheric profiling and sold through its DeepVision dashboard, aviation intelligence via space-based ADS-B flight tracking (including its EURIALO next-generation air traffic surveillance product), space reconnaissance and radio-frequency geolocation (RFGEOINT) for government and defense customers, and Space Services, which hosts third-party payloads and offers satellite-as-a-service on the LEMUR bus. Spire's differentiator against other Earth-observation and space-data vendors is vertical integration: it designs and manufactures its own satellites in-house, with cleanroom production in Glasgow, Scotland, plus additional US capacity and, since May 2026, a Munich, Germany facility, rather than buying capacity from a launch or imagery provider, and it runs the full stack from spacecraft through ground stations to data delivery. This lets it sell data derived from the same constellation across several verticals rather than specialising in one sensor type. Its customer base is concentrated in government and defense agencies, national weather services and meteorological agencies, and enterprises needing global satellite-derived situational data, rather than retail or consumer users. The company traces its founding to June 2012 as NanoSatisfi Inc., started by Peter Platzer, Jeroen Cappaert and Joel Spark, three graduates of the International Space University, and was renamed Spire soon after. Early funding included a Kickstarter campaign and a 1.5 million dollar seed round from Shasta Ventures and Grishin Robotics, followed by a 25 million dollar Series A in 2014 led by RRE Ventures, a 40 million dollar Series B in 2015 led by Promus Ventures, and a 70 million dollar Series C in 2017 from a Luxembourg national fund. Spire went public on the NYSE under ticker SPIR in August 2021 via a SPAC merger with Navsight Holding Corp at a 1.6 billion dollar valuation. It has supplied GNSS radio-occultation weather data to NOAA under the Commercial Weather Data Program since 2016. In November 2024 Spire agreed to sell its commercial maritime ship-tracking (AIS) business to Belgium's Kpler; the sale closed on April 25, 2025 for approximately 233.5 million dollars, and Spire used the proceeds to retire all its outstanding debt while retaining its satellite infrastructure and US government maritime customers. As of mid-2026 the company states it serves more than 745 customers in 65 countries. Founder Peter Platzer stepped down as CEO effective January 1, 2025, moving to executive chairman, and co-founder and then chief operating officer Theresa Condor succeeded him as CEO. In its first quarter of 2026, Spire reported 15.8 million dollars in GAAP revenue, down 34 percent year over year because of the maritime divestiture, though revenue excluding that business was up 13 percent, and it reaffirmed full-year 2026 revenue guidance of 75 to 85 million dollars. In April 2026 the company raised 70 million dollars in gross proceeds for working capital and growth in space reconnaissance and government weather-data procurement, and in May 2026 it opened the Munich manufacturing facility, an ISO-certified cleanroom able to produce up to 100 satellites a year, initially to build satellites for the ESA-backed EURIALO in-orbit demonstration and to support sovereign German space-based intelligence capability.
