Descartes Labs
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2014
- HeadquartersNew York, United States
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
Descartes Labs firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Descartes Labs
- Website
- https://descarteslabs.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2014
- Operating status
- Acquired
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Descartes Labs industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Geospatial Analytics Software
- NAICS
- Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services (541360)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Satellite Imagery & Remote Sensing Geospatial Platforms (BPAMANAM)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Mineral Exploration & Geoscience Services (Geology, Geophysics, Geochemistry, Resource Modeling) (IMAKAKAA)
Keywords
Where Descartes Labs is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- New York
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Descartes Labs business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Descartes Labs product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Descartes Labs is a geospatial intelligence company that provides a platform for analyzing satellite imagery and Earth observation data using AI and machine learning. The platform delivers actionable geospatial insights for sectors including agriculture, insurance, logistics, mineral exploration, defense, and urban planning. Following its October 2024 acquisition by EarthDaily Analytics, the company's capabilities are being integrated with the EarthDaily Constellation planned for 2025 launch to provide daily imagery of land and maritime areas.
Product overview
Descartes Labs was a geospatial intelligence company that provided a platform for satellite imagery analysis and Earth observation data processing. The company operated as a single unified product offering before its acquisition by EarthDaily Analytics in October 2024. Post-acquisition, Descartes Labs' capabilities are being integrated into the EarthDaily Constellation platform planned for 2025 launch, which will provide daily imagery of land and maritime areas for high-value markets including mineral exploration and insurance.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Geospatial Intelligence Platform AI-powered geospatial intelligence platform that analyzes satellite imagery and Earth observation data to deliver actionable insights for organizations in mineral exploration, agriculture, insurance, defense, logistics, and urban planning sectors.
Companies that use Descartes Labs
Customer profileSegments3 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Descartes Labs technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Descartes Labs partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.
- Descartes (parent company - logistics technology provider)coreDescartes (a different company, Descartes Labs' successor) is expanding AI innovation within its global logistics network through the launch of a Fleet Data Intelligence Platform, building on the AI capabilities originally developed at Descartes Labs.
- EarthDaily AnalyticsflagshipEarthDaily Analytics acquired Descartes Labs, a leader in geospatial intelligence. The acquisition aimed to enhance EarthDaily's geospatial data capabilities, especially ahead of its planned satellite constellation launch in 2025. The combined company planned to launch the EarthDaily Constellation in 2025 to provide daily imagery of land and maritime areas, enhancing offerings across high-growth sectors including mineral exploration and insurance.
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights4 records
Descartes Labs competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Planet Labs: Planet Labs operates one of the largest commercial earth-observation satellite constellations and offers AI-powered geospatial analytics to agriculture, defense, and commercial customers—directly overlapping Descartes Labs' satellite-imagery-plus-analytics model across the same primary verticals.
- BlackSky Holdings: BlackSky provides high-revisit satellite imagery combined with AI-driven geospatial analytics and tasking services to defense, intelligence, and commercial clients—a near-direct functional and customer overlap with Descartes Labs' platform.
- Maxar Technologies (Vantor): Maxar/Vantor operates high-resolution earth observation satellites and delivers geospatial analytics to defense, intelligence, and commercial customers, competing head-on with Descartes Labs in analytics-enabled imagery, particularly for defense and infrastructure use cases.
- Satellogic: Satellogic operates a sub-meter resolution earth observation constellation with an AI/analytics platform serving agriculture, energy, and government—offering a directly comparable satellite-plus-analytics stack to Descartes Labs.
Broad incumbents
- Palantir Technologies: Palantir's Foundry and Gotham platforms incorporate geospatial analytics for defense and commercial customers, overlapping with Descartes Labs in insurance, supply chain, and national security use cases while operating at much larger enterprise scale.
- Esri: Esri's ArcGIS platform is the dominant enterprise GIS and geospatial analytics stack, serving many of the same agriculture, urban planning, insurance, and defense customers as Descartes Labs but with a much broader, more general-purpose offering.
- Google Earth Engine: Google Earth Engine is a free, cloud-based geospatial analytics platform hosting petabytes of satellite imagery—overlapping with Descartes Labs' analytics-on-imagery proposition, particularly for agricultural and environmental monitoring users, though it does not sell a packaged commercial product.
Emerging players
- ICEYE: ICEYE operates a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellation and provides analytics for insurance, finance, and government—offering a comparable analytics-on-satellite-data model with a differentiated SAR imaging modality versus Descartes Labs' optical focus.
- Capella Space: Capella Space runs a commercial SAR constellation with tasking and analytics services for defense, intelligence, and commercial users, competing with Descartes Labs in the satellite-imagery-plus-AI analytics layer for monitoring and change-detection use cases.
- Umbra Space: Umbra operates a SAR satellite constellation offering high-resolution imagery and analytics to defense and commercial customers—an emerging direct competitor to Descartes Labs' earth observation and analytics platform.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Descartes Labs social profiles
Digital presenceDescartes Labs financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Descartes Labs leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles10 records
Descartes Labs funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds4 records
Investors13 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Descartes Labs M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A1 record
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Descartes Labs
What does Descartes Labs do?
Descartes Labs is a geospatial intelligence company that provides a platform for analyzing satellite imagery and Earth observation data using AI and machine learning. The platform delivers actionable geospatial insights for sectors including agriculture, insurance, logistics, mineral exploration, defense, and urban planning. Following its October 2024 acquisition by EarthDaily Analytics, the company's capabilities are being integrated with the EarthDaily Constellation planned for 2025 launch to provide daily imagery of land and maritime areas.
Is Descartes Labs a public or private company?
Descartes Labs is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently acquired.
When was Descartes Labs founded?
Descartes Labs was founded in 2014. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is Descartes Labs based?
Descartes Labs is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.
Who are Descartes Labs's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Planet Labs, BlackSky Holdings, Maxar Technologies (Vantor) and Satellogic. Broad incumbents are Palantir Technologies, Esri and Google Earth Engine. Emerging players are ICEYE, Capella Space and Umbra Space.
Does Descartes Labs have an API?
No public API is recorded for Descartes Labs.
What industry is Descartes Labs in?
Descartes Labs's product category is Geospatial Analytics Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAMANAM, Satellite Imagery & Remote Sensing Geospatial Platforms, with a secondary code of IMAKAKAA, Mineral Exploration & Geoscience Services (Geology, Geophysics, Geochemistry, Resource Modeling). Its NAICS code is 541360 and its SIC code is 7372.