A Phytoplankton swirl in the Sea of Marmara in June 2021. Photo: Planet

Planet Labs closed out its third quarter of fiscal year 2023 with $49.7 million in revenue, up 57% year-over-year. Planet, which sells satellite imagery and geospatial solutions, is in its 2023 fiscal year and Q3 ended Oct. 31, 2022. 

The company added just nine net new customers in the quarter, ending the period with 864 customers compared to 855 customers last quarter. However, this is up 16% from the same time last year. 

Planet also improved gross profit, expanding its non-GAAP gross margin to 54%, up from 35% a year ago.

The company did spend more on R&D, sales and marketing and general expenses in the third quarter, increasing overall operating expenses 72% compared to Q3 2022. 

Net loss for the quarter was $40.2 million — an improvement over a net loss of $41.5 million in the same time last year. 

“Demand pipeline, win rates and our sales team execution all continue to be strong despite the economic backdrop. The pace at which our reps are signing new and expansion business remains healthy and our average deal size continues to increase as the reps are focusing on those opportunities with the strongest product to market fit,” said Planet CEO William Marshall said on a Wednesday investor call. 

Also on Wednesday, Planet announced a deal to acquire Salo Sciences, a small climate company located in San Francisco. Planet has worked with the company for years, and Salo Sciences currently offers a forest carbon measurement tool powered by Planet data. The company plans to use the acquisition to further develop offerings that monitor forest change. 

“Earlier this year, we partnered to directly measure forest carbon in select areas around the world. We at Planet see a planetary variable for carbon as a key element for the global sustainability transition in general and the carbon offsetting market in particular,” Marshall said. “The next step is to extend the Salo sciences products and reach and that’s where Planet comes in.” 

The acquisition is expected to close early next year. 

Planet has an emphasis on using partnerships to grow its customers, and recently signed partnerships with Accenture, expanded its work with Microsoft. It also announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services on Wednesday to embed Planet data into AWS SageMaker, giving data sciences and machine-learning engineers access to the satellite data. 

Planet provided guidance for the fourth quarter and expanded its revenue outlook for the full fiscal year 2023. The company expects revenue of between $50 million to $54 million in the fourth quarter, which takes full year to revenue between $188 million and $192 million. This will be 45% growth at the midpoint.