Jerry Welsh will lead Kuva Space’s expansion in the U.S. Photo: Kuva Space

Finnish hyperspectral startup Kuva Space is working to break into the U.S. market, recently hiring former Iceye US CEO Jerry Welsh to lead the company’s expansion in the U.S. The company plans to launch two hyperspectral satellites this year and establish a constellation of 100 satellites by 2030.

For Welsh, this role represents a tough, but exciting challenge. He told Via Satellite that entering into the U.S. market and working with the U.S. government segment is “not a simple path.”

“Merely concentrating on business development or sales is not enough. To become a trusted provider to the USG, we also need to meet relevant cybersecurity, regulatory, and contractual requirements that are specific to the U.S. government and can vary across customers and opportunities. However, with a firm understanding of the requirements and how to navigate them, it’s not as challenging as it might appear.”

The company plans to build an extensive hyperspectral constellation and an automated AI-powered analytics platform. The satellites are equipped with a camera payload that aims to give the company an edge in capturing quality application-specific data. It plans to couple this data acquisition with an advanced AI platform that automatically combines third-party data aims to give customers access to near real-time information.

Welsh says that while the U.S. market is competitive, there is an opening to provide hyperspectral products to the U.S. government.

“It’s true that the U.S. market is sizable and highly competitive. However, the current landscape for hyperspectral products and services is not,” he says. “Unfortunately, there is still a substantial gap between what commercial providers are promising to deliver and the actual amount of hyperspectral products provided today. Drawing from past experience, being an early entrant to the U.S. market is not required. It’s more important to introduce innovative capabilities tailored to the specific requirements of the U.S. government.”

Like Iceye, Kuva Space is based in Finland, Welsh worked before. When asked how he would compare the two, he says they share Finland’s strong reputation for innovation and technology expertise that has recently attracted significant investments in deep tech.

However, there are differences. “For instance, Iceye performs tasking based on targeted areas, aligning with its business model and use cases. In contrast, Kuva Space images continuously, eliminating the need for tasking — and Kuva Space automatically processes the data collected with AI,” Welsh says. Another difference is can also be seen with the evolution of the U.S. market over the past three years. “Since the inception of Iceye US, significant changes have occurred. Finland’s NATO partnership and the U.S. government’s increasingly favorable stance towards innovative technologies from allied nations,” he comments.

The company is also looking to be very progressive in terms of how it uses AI. Welsh said the company is developing in-house AI models to orchestrate stages including governing data acquisition, optimizing and cleansing data in orbit, transforming pre-processed data into actionable information, and continually updating insights using dynamically refreshed data, which may include third-party data sources.

“This advanced AI-driven workflow streamlines the complexity of processing spaceborne hyperspectral data, enabling us to provide end-users with readily processed information – ultimately, we can create analytics insights within 15 minutes, accelerating and enhancing decision-making,” he says.

The company has a big year ahead, launching and demonstrating its end-to-end service delivery platform. Another milestone is to win early customers in key segments.

“Success for Kuva Space US is to become a trusted provider to the U.S. government and a leader in hyperspectral products and analytics in the U.S. We have two hyperspectral satellite launches planned this year, and we expect to demonstrate our end-to-end capabilities with our AI-powered analytics platform. We hope to land some high-value contracts in 2025,” Welsh said.

While he will be focused on the US government market, Welsh says geopolitical tensions in recent years have given rise to safety and security applications that Kuva Space sees considerable opporutnity for in the coming years. It also sees potential in environmental and agriculture markets.

“We are uniquely positioned to serve the blue economy with services such as accurate blue carbon verification, water quality monitoring, bathymetry insights, and timely marine surveillance. Globally, sectors such as agri-insurance and environmental monitoring present vast opportunities,” he says.