SAN FRANCISCO – Spire Global announced an agreement Aug. 13 to share data and develop new products alongside Concirrus, a London-based insurance analytics company.
“The insurance sector is a data-based industry at its core and Spire can add deep intrinsic value to existing forecasting and modeling capabilities,” Peter Platzer, Spire Global CEO, told SpaceNews by email.
With more than 70 satellites in orbit, Spire Global gathers atmospheric data, tracks ships with Automatic Identification System receivers and planes with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast receivers.
“This partnership is primarily for maritime insurance,” Graham Libaert, Concirrus Alliances director, said by email. “However, we are always looking for new opportunities to leverage data for the benefit of our clients.
Spire announced the launch of Spire Maritime as a separate business unit in February 2019. Prior to that announcement, Spire’s maritime business showed a 160 percent increase in 2018 revenue compared with 2017.
“This multibillion-dollar [insurance] market faces higher risks every day, whereby huge inefficiencies continue to prevent business improvements,” John Lusk, Spire Maritime general manager, said in a statement. “Our partnership with Concirrus will enable us to create a platform where data is the prime enabler for improved maritime insurance performance.”
Prior to establishing the partnership, Concirrus performed “rigorous validation and due diligence” on Spire data, Libaert said in a statement. With the new agreement, Spire data will feed Concirrus’ “core machine-learning models,” he added.
Spire meanwhile, continues to establish partnerships and find new applications for the data it acquires. Spire Global and Kleos Space of Luxembourg plan to create new satellite-derived products aimed at enhancing maritime safety.
“While the technology is exciting, we also realize data is quietly becoming a part of everyday life – in your phone’s forecast, tracking your deliveries, down to insuring an airline reports an accurate arrival time for your flight,” Platzer said. “We see a daily real-world need for solutions that address how these new data sets impact global business in a myriad of sectors every day.”
