Artist rendition of Spire’s Lemur-2 satellite. Photo: Spire

Spire Global grew revenue 86% in the first quarter of 2022, compared to the same time last year. The space-based data company released its financial results on May 11. First quarter 2022 revenue was $18.1 million, which topped the high end of guidance of $17.5 million. Spire said increased adoption from existing customers and new customer additions drove the growth. 

At the end of the quarter, Spire had 627 annual recurring revenue (ARR) customers under contract, a net increase of 29 customers from the end of the prior quarter. This was on the upper end of its first quarter guidance range.

The company highlighted new business in the quarter including a space-as-a-service deal with NorthStar to build a constellation of satellites for space-situational awareness and debris monitoring and an expanded partnership with Slingshot Aerospace for GPS telemetry data. New customers included logistics company FreightWaves in Tennessee, Zeus Agrotech in Brazil, and a top Formula 1 racing team, which uses hyperlocal weather data from Spire to be more competitive. 

Spire added six satellites to its constellation during the quarter, and its constellation now totals 150 satellites. Spire collects spaced-based data for weather, aviation, maritime, and government industries and also offers a space-as-a-service, in which customers can operate their own payloads on orbit through Spire’s constellation. 

Two of Spire’s strategies to drive grow are to build its sales and marketing team and expand into new geographies. CEO Peter Platzer said on Wednesday’s call with investors that new sales and marketing hires during the quarter enabled the company to begin focusing on sales in Central America and the Middle East. 

“We look for individuals that have experience listening to customers to solve their specific problems. For example, we are targeting individuals with domain experience related to certain industry verticals like maritime, financial services, supply chain, aviation or renewable energy,” Platzer said. “Likewise, we look for individuals with specific geographic experience who know how to best navigate the nuances of selling in a specific cultural and economic context.” 

Looking to the second quarter, Spire is projecting between $18.2 million to $19.2 million in revenue, and between 655 and 665 ARR customers. The company maintained 2022 revenue guidance between $85 million to $90 million. 

On Thursday, a day after the results were released, Spire’s stock closed at $1.33, up less than 1% from the day prior. The stock is down 62% this year.