Planet published a series of images in January and February 2023, showing the impact of warming weather on wetlands along the shore of Bohai Bay in eastern China. Credit: PlanetScope

SAN FRANCISCO — Planet announced plans March 29 to acquire Sinergise Labs, a Slovenian startup known for making Earth-observation data accessible through cloud-based APIs.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“By reducing the complexity of analysis and insights extraction, as well as the cost of EO data storage, Planet aims to continue expanding into new vertical markets with products and applications where EO data is highly relevant such as agriculture, civil government, insurance, financial markets and sustainable supply chain management,” according to the news release.  

Integrating Planet data with Sinergise’s Sentinel Hub, a cloud-based API that offers access to imagery from Europe’s Sentinel, the U.S. Landsat and other satellite datasets, “will meaningfully accelerate our Earth Data Platform plans, in particular by lowering barriers to access for EO data expanding the market, and by allowing partners to quickly and easily build applications,” Will Marshall, Planet CEO and co-founder, said in a statement. “Furthermore, this acquisition underscores our strong commitment to investing in Europe, and building and enabling the downstream market ecosystem there.”

Longtime Partners

Planet and Sinergise have worked together since 2016 when Sinergise began reselling Planet satellite data. The partnership was extended in 2021 as Planet and Sinergise joined forces to supply Earth-observation data to Slovenia’s Agency for Agricultural Markets and Rural Development.

“We are thrilled to integrate our technologies to together build a powerful Earth Data Platform to unlock the full potential for EO data,” Sinergise co-founder Grega Milcinski said in a statement. “Partnering with Planet over the years has inspired us to accelerate the adoption of EO driven applications at scale.”

Planet Acquisitions

Planet established its European presence in 2015 with the acquisition of Berlin-based BlackBridge and its RapidEye Earth-observation constellation. San Francisco-based Planet extended its European footprint with its 2021 purchase of VanderSat, a Dutch company that gathers data on soil moisture, land surface temperature and other Earth-surface conditions.

Sinergise is Planet’s six acquisition. In addition to BlackBridge and VanderSat, Planet acquired Salo Sciences earlier this year, Boundless Spatial in 2019 and Terra Bella in 2017.

Planet’s acquisition of Sinergise is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2023.

Debra Werner is a correspondent for SpaceNews based in San Francisco. Debra earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in Journalism from Northwestern University. She...