Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week with Carol Messer and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: We're talking about SpaceX, talking about Boeing, Blue Origin, Axiom Space.
Speaker 1: Those are just a handful of the companies that operate
Speaker 1: in the space economy. The World Economic Forum estimates that
Speaker 1: the space economy will be worth one point eight trillion
Speaker 1: dollars by twenty thirty five. Another company in that space
Speaker 1: is Spire Global. Spier says it designs, builds, and operates
Speaker 1: the world's largest multipurpose satellite constellation. It's a publicly traded
Speaker 1: microcap valuation just about two hundred and fifty million dollars.
Speaker 1: The stock up about twenty four percent so far this year.
Speaker 1: A big part of that after the company in March
Speaker 1: announced a partnership with Nvidia to advance AI driven weather prediction.
Speaker 1: We've got back with us the founder and CEO, Peter Platzer.
Speaker 1: He joins us from Geneva. Peter, good to have you
Speaker 1: with us. We're gonna get the Nvidia partnership in just
Speaker 1: a minute. But you operate in the maritime, weather, climate, aviation,
Speaker 1: and government sectors. Explain what exactly your technology does in
Speaker 1: the services that you offer clients.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much to Michael, it's a pleasure to back here.
Speaker 2: So for the last twelve years, Spire has been delivering
Speaker 2: data and analytics from space to create a better future
Speaker 2: on Earth. If you are looking for safe, for cheaper flights,
Speaker 2: you know our products can help with that. If you
Speaker 2: want your business to be better prepared for weather, including
Speaker 2: extreme weather, you know our services can help you with that.
Speaker 2: If you're looking for a more reliable, faster supply chain
Speaker 2: with the lower carbon footprint, you know we can help
Speaker 2: with that. Basically, we track activities all across the world,
Speaker 2: be that ships, planes, of the weather to create a
Speaker 2: more sustainable, prosperous, safer future for all of Earth.
Speaker 3: So what's the Capex hardware that you guys actually have
Speaker 3: to deal with or is it mostly data that you're
Speaker 3: dealing with.
Speaker 2: So we're dealing mostly with data we have because we
Speaker 2: are fully integrated and annual cap has cost of like
Speaker 2: five to seven million dollars that support and cause unlimited
Speaker 2: amount of revenue. I mean, the company is way over
Speaker 2: one hundred million in revenue and has been growing compounding
Speaker 2: and a growth rate since twenty seventeen over one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: But we are incredibly efficient and we collect the data
Speaker 2: one and then we sell it many, many times, just
Speaker 2: like any subscription company. And while the entry point originally
Speaker 2: is incredibly high, getting space to work is difficult and
Speaker 2: tricky once you have a crack that notts, which Spire
Speaker 2: has with over six hundred years of space heritage. For us,
Speaker 2: the maintenance of keeping that constellation up and up to
Speaker 2: date and at the cutting edge of technology is just
Speaker 2: five to seven million dollars a year.
Speaker 1: Speaking of keeping that constellation up there, I want to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about deorbiting and how you were
Speaker 1: able to address the deorbiting setback and how you've insulated
Speaker 1: yourself from those risks going forward. So explain what exactly happened, right,
Speaker 1: So this.
Speaker 2: The Sun has an activity cycle that is so between
Speaker 2: seventy and eleven years, and when it gets some more active,
Speaker 2: it kind of like blows up the earth atmosphere and
Speaker 2: it reaches higher and that creates increased friction and as
Speaker 2: it has creates increased frictions with spacecraft. All of them
Speaker 2: made the orbit a little bit sooner, and as spacecraft
Speaker 2: get towards the end of their life, you know, for us,
Speaker 2: that's you know, like four or five six years. Small
Speaker 2: changes can make a big impact. And while we have
Speaker 2: a very regular replenishment schedule, you know, there was there
Speaker 2: was a bit of a mismatch. Now, our consolation is
Speaker 2: software defined, so that means that we can change what
Speaker 2: it does, which is exactly what we did. You know,
Speaker 2: we increased some software capabilities to lower the data latency.
Speaker 2: We added to our ground station network to create you know,
Speaker 2: more robusters there. So you adapt to it because as
Speaker 2: a fully integrated company, you know, we have the ability
Speaker 2: to do that, and it's one of the huge advantages
Speaker 2: that's FY has.
Speaker 3: Where's your biggest growth.
Speaker 2: So there are fundamental trends that we have been betting
Speaker 2: on for you know, like you know, the whole time
Speaker 2: of the of the existence of the company, in particular
Speaker 2: climate change and global security, and they continue to be
Speaker 2: in one hundred percent operation, driving demand for our products
Speaker 2: and services forward. But in particular recently, you know, we've
Speaker 2: seen some of the supporting trends that we indicated many
Speaker 2: many years ago, the growth of the space sector, the
Speaker 2: digitalization of the global economy, with data being the oil
Speaker 2: of the twenty first century and AI and machine learning
Speaker 2: further accelerating our growth. You know you mentioned it earlier.
Speaker 2: You know we have seen contract sizes dramatically increase as
Speaker 2: we are adding AI to mine our data for increased capabilities.
Speaker 2: I mean we are applying and video chats and processes
Speaker 2: for a number of years now because it gets us
Speaker 2: to insights faster from the massive amount of raw data
Speaker 2: that we collect.
Speaker 1: This is a partnership within Video that you announced. Just
Speaker 1: back in March, the company announced a partnership within Vidia
Speaker 1: to advance artificial intelligence driven weather prediction. Any more deals
Speaker 1: like this on the horizon.
Speaker 2: Well, as a public company, I would wish to tell
Speaker 2: you everything that is on the horizon. What I can
Speaker 2: tell you is that we couldn't be more excited about
Speaker 2: the demand side that we are seeing given those trends
Speaker 2: and the capabilities that Spire has. For better or worse,
Speaker 2: the threats from a global security perspective, as well as
Speaker 2: the impact that weather is having on communities, countries, corporations
Speaker 2: all across the world is not diminishing any time soon
Speaker 2: than if anything, we see consistently and continuously increase. So
Speaker 2: we love working with companies like an like an Aurora
Speaker 2: Tech going GHC, which is using you know, our capabilities
Speaker 2: and their capabilities and payloads to predict wild buyers and
Speaker 2: detect greenhouse gas emissions. Companies like Hubble that connect space,
Speaker 2: you know, from our technology and their technology to Bluetooth
Speaker 2: devices and driving an IoT revolution to help on everything
Speaker 2: from transportation to agriculture and much more. So, where we
Speaker 2: see the demand coming from from those trends we see
Speaker 2: to continue to accelerate and drive the growth of the company.
Speaker 3: But Peter, how much in terms of industry, Like, I'm
Speaker 3: trying to get an idea of just for our audience,
Speaker 3: the specific industries like weather is obviously weather indicators, right,
Speaker 3: It's a big part of what you guys do ship
Speaker 3: in airline signals. So I'm just trying to understand exactly
Speaker 3: where the growth is in terms of demand for what
Speaker 3: you guys provide.
Speaker 2: So when you think about you know, the global supply chain, right,
Speaker 2: there's many many players there that are tackling that problem.
Speaker 2: Do you have anything from harbors where they are like
Speaker 2: five to ten thousand harbors like the harbor of Rotterdam,
Speaker 2: one of the largest harbors in the world. The customer
Speaker 2: of Spire that is using our data to improve both
Speaker 2: the efficiency of its operation as well as it's greenhouse
Speaker 2: gas footprints. Then you have the actual charter and shipping
Speaker 2: companies which want to optimize the roots and in particularly
Speaker 2: when they have sensitive cargo like for example, a temperature
Speaker 2: sensitive cargo or perishable cargo, to optimize the spend that
Speaker 2: they have on the cargo, with fuel being a massive
Speaker 2: portion of the balance sheet and so SPIRES both tracking
Speaker 2: and weather helps them reduce that. And then you have
Speaker 2: the distribution on land, where again weather is making a
Speaker 2: massive impact. So there already you have tens of thousands
Speaker 2: of customers that are all operating the supply chain on
Speaker 2: a global basis that are looking for Spire products. Then
Speaker 2: you have the financial services companies. That's what I think
Speaker 2: about insurance companies.
Speaker 3: That's what I wanted to know. How much of your
Speaker 3: business is to the financial area, So it.
Speaker 2: Is not an overwhelming in Mount Carroll can be honest,
Speaker 2: right it is. You know, we have literally you know,
Speaker 2: dozens and hundreds of use cases, but we do have
Speaker 2: a good portion of our business in the financial services industry.
Speaker 2: But it is not a dominant industry. I have to
Speaker 2: tell you. For our customer base.
Speaker 1: How much of your business comes from governments, including the
Speaker 1: European Space Agency and the United States.
Speaker 2: About forty five percent, So less than half of our
Speaker 2: businesses from the government side, okay, and more than half,
Speaker 2: about fifty five percent is commercial customers.
Speaker 1: You mentioned balance sheet, So I'm curious about your balance
Speaker 1: sheet because you announced the registered direct offering of thirty
Speaker 1: million dollars back in March. Anyw's how's your cash balance
Speaker 1: right now?
Speaker 2: Is that enough?
Speaker 3: It just got about thirty seconds.
Speaker 2: We have an extremely strong balance sheet, not least because
Speaker 2: of the findar raising that we did in the first
Speaker 2: first part of the year. It makes us feel very
Speaker 2: very comfortable given that we have re announced that free
Speaker 2: cashal positive is in the summer of this year's we've
Speaker 2: already been adjusted EBA a positive and cash flow from
Speaker 2: operations positive end of last year, so just at the
Speaker 2: verge of producing our own cash, we feel very very
Speaker 2: strong about our balance sheet.
Speaker 3: All right, great stuff, So glad we could get some
Speaker 3: time with you today. Peter Peter Platz, thank you. The
Speaker 3: founder and ceof Spyro Global, joining us from Geneva