What Data Friendly Space does

Data Friendly Space (DFS) is a 501c3 non-profit organization founded in 2015 and headquartered in Williamsburg, Virginia, that builds AI-powered data tools for humanitarian organizations, UN agencies, and development institutions. Operating as a fully remote organization with 85+ team members across six continents, DFS serves as the technology partner of record for entities including IFRC, IDMC, UNDP, UNEP, UNHCR, OCHA, UNFPA, Save the Children, H2H Network, and GiveDirectly, and is funded primarily by USAID BHA, the Gates Foundation, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and various UN agencies.

The company's product portfolio centers on the GANNET AI Suite — comprising GANNET Virtual Assistant (a multilingual generative-AI chatbot), GANNET SituationHub (a real-time crisis monitoring platform with human-in-the-loop analysis), and GANNET Workspace (a secure collaborative environment for private data analysis) — built on the foundation of the DEEP platform, which hosts 85,000+ annotated humanitarian response documents and serves as the training corpus for DFS's NLP capabilities. Additional products include HELIX (the referential global internal displacement database for IDMC), NEAT+ (environmental screening for humanitarian projects with UNEP/OCHA), Lukim Gather (conservation data collection in Papua New Guinea with UNDP), IFRC GO (disaster response coordination for IFRC since 2019), and the GBV AoR website. The technology stack leverages generative AI, NLP, and machine learning, runs on AWS infrastructure, and is supported by academic research collaborations with CERN, EPFL, and Johannes Kepler Universität Linz.

Revenue is generated primarily through institutional grants and project contracts from humanitarian donors, supplemented by AI consultancy services (including AI Readiness Assessments) and recurring engagements. Go-to-market is relationship-driven through UN and NGO partnerships, with thought leadership reinforced by large-scale AI adoption surveys (2,539 respondents across 144 countries in 2025; 1,729 respondents across 120+ countries in 2026). Leadership transitioned from founder Ewan Oglethorpe to Karin Maasel in March 2023.

Name

Data Friendly Space

Legal name

Data Friendly Space

Website

https://datafriendlyspace.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Data Friendly Space is a 501c3 non-profit that builds AI-powered data tools (GANNET Suite, HELIX, DEEP, NEAT+) for humanitarian organizations, UN agencies, and development institutions, operating as a fully remote team of 85+ across six continents.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Humanitarian Technology Software

NAICS

Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518210), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Content Collaboration, File Sync & Share (EFSS) (HDAEAGAI)

akta.pro secondary industry

Document Management Systems (DMS) (HDAEAGAA)

Keywords

• Humanitarian technology
• Crisis data analysis
• Secondary data review
• Displacement monitoring
• Environmental assessment

Headquarters

HQ city

Williamsburg

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. Grants and Donor Funding: DFS operates as a registered 501c3 non-profit corporation that secures funding from institutional donors, foundations, and government agencies. Major donors include USAID BHA, Norwegian Refugee Council, Gates Foundation, and various UN agencies. Revenue comes through project grants, contracts, and donations.
2. AI Consultancy Services: DFS offers AI readiness assessments and consultancy services to social impact organizations, including complimentary 30-minute AI Strategy Consultations. Fee-based consulting engagements for organizations seeking guidance on AI adoption.
3. Research and Publication Partnerships: DFS conducts research on AI in the humanitarian sector in partnership with organizations like the Humanitarian Leadership Academy, producing surveys, reports, and user personas that serve both mission and potential funding opportunities.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Data Friendly Space (DFS) is a 501c3 non-profit technology organization that builds AI-powered software platforms (GANNET Suite, IFRC GO, HELIX, NEAT+, Lukim Gather, GBV AoR) and delivers secondary data review (SDR) and analysis services for humanitarian, UN, and development organizations worldwide. The organization combines generative AI, NLP, and machine learning with human expertise to support crisis response, displacement monitoring, environmental screening, and conservation data collection.

Product overview

Data Friendly Space (DFS) offers a unified AI-powered product portfolio centered on the GANNET AI Suite, which comprises three integrated tools: GANNET Virtual Assistant (generative-AI chatbot for quick humanitarian insights), GANNET SituationHub (real-time data analysis with human oversight), and GANNET Workspace (secure collaborative environment for private data). Beyond GANNET, DFS delivers specialized humanitarian technology platforms including IFRC GO (disaster response coordination), HELIX Platform (internal displacement monitoring), Lukim Gather (conservation data collection), GBV AoR Website (gender-based violence coordination), and NEAT+ (environmental assessment). The company also provides secondary data review and analysis services for specific humanitarian contexts (Sudan, Ukraine) and develops AI-driven decision-support systems for partners like GiveDirectly. All products leverage AI/ML capabilities including NLP, generative AI, and advanced analytics to transform humanitarian data into actionable insights.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• GANNET: A real-time, end-to-end Generative AI platform combining near real-time assistance, analytics, and monitoring features for humanitarian data collaboration and effective decision-making. Includes GANNET Virtual Assistant, GANNET SituationHub, and GANNET Workspace.

Products and services

• GANNET AI Suite A real-time, end-to-end Generative AI platform combining near real-time assistance, analytics, and monitoring features for humanitarian data collaboration and effective decision-making, designed for humanitarian organizations and UN agencies.
• GANNET Virtual Assistant A trusted generative-AI chatbot for quick humanitarian insights and decision-making, featuring personalized humanitarian-trained models, a Data Explorer with transparent source access, multi-lingual support in French, Spanish, and Arabic, secure encryption, and verified humanitarian data sources.
• GANNET SituationHub A real-time crisis analysis platform that transforms how humanitarian organizations access, analyze, and act on information, providing a Crisis Overview Dashboard, Media Monitoring with AI-powered event detection, and Situation Analysis with expert-validated insights through a human-in-the-loop system.
• GANNET Workspace A collaborative intelligence environment that allows humanitarian teams to securely upload and query private and confidential information, collaborate on complex analyses, share insights, and build collective intelligence with full data control.
• IFRC GO Platform A digital tool for the IFRC and Red Cross/Red Crescent network that serves as a centralised hub for information exchange, collaboration, and coordination enabling actors to swiftly mobilise resources and respond effectively at scale during crises.
• HELIX Platform Internal displacement monitoring and analysis platform for IDMC (Norwegian Refugee Council), serving as the world's referential source of data and analysis on internal displacement, used by UN and other agencies, with database management and visualization tools for GIDD and GRID.
• Lukim Gather Web and mobile data application for Papua New Guinea Natural Resource Hub that facilitates gathering of conservation and biodiversity data, featuring an icon-based approach for users with varying literacy levels, English and Tok Pisin language support, and online/offline/out-of-signal-range operation.
• NEAT+ (Nexus Environmental Assessment Tool) A swift and straightforward environmental screening instrument at project level for humanitarian entities, combining contextual environmental information with site-specific data and categorizing issues into low, medium, and high levels of concern, available through Excel, KoBo Toolbox, and a web application.
• GBV AoR Website Website for the Gender-Based Violence Area of Responsibility providing global-level inter-agency policy recommendations and direction for GBV sub-clusters within humanitarian field operations.
• Sudan Secondary Data Review & Analysis Secondary Data Review analysis service that establishes a comprehensive data platform and reportage specific to Sudan within the humanitarian sector, compiling and integrating data on displacement, health, education, and other critical factors.
• Ukraine Secondary Data Review & Analysis Secondary data review analysis providing a comprehensive data platform and monthly situational analyses for Ukraine, integrating data from sources including REACH, ACLED, and other humanitarian organizations.
• GiveDirectly Decision-Support Systems Decision-support tools and AI-driven analysis systems enabling GiveDirectly to identify emerging crises and respond with informed, ethical, and data-driven emergency cash interventions.
• AI Consultancy Services AI Readiness Assessments and consultancy services for social impact organizations, including complimentary 30-minute AI Strategy Consultations and fee-based consulting engagements for organizations seeking guidance on responsible AI adoption.

Quantifiable outcome

• 50% faster response times to critical inquiries for humanitarian organizations using GANNET AI tools
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability5 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

30 partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and minor.

• IDMC (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020DFS partnered with IDMC (part of Norwegian Refugee Council) to redesign the HELIX system, undertaking security audits and modernizing the core monitoring tool from HELIX 1.0 to 2.0, including migration to AWS.
• IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2019DFS has been the project management and technical developer of IFRC's GO platform since 2019. The platform serves Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, volunteers, and stakeholders engaged in disaster response, preparedness, and recovery. DFS continuously enhances features, usability, and performance.
• UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDFS partnered with UNDP to build and enhance Lukim Gather web and mobile application for environmental and biodiversity data collection in Papua New Guinea. The app facilitates conservation data gathering, enhancing management and monitoring of protected areas.
• UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDFS collaborated with UNEP in developing NEAT+ (Nexus Environmental Assessment Tool), providing design and technical support for the web application, data infrastructure, and data security.
• IOM (International Organization for Migration)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIOM is listed as a partner organization, with DFS providing data analysis and technical solutions supporting migration and displacement response efforts.
• UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDFS collaborates with UNHCR on data analysis and humanitarian response projects, including DEEP platform usage for refugee crisis analysis in Venezuela and Rohingya response.
• OCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDFS partners with OCHA on humanitarian data initiatives, crisis monitoring, and coordination tools for emergency response.
• Impact InitiativescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDFS partners with Impact Initiatives on secondary data review analysis for Ukraine, producing monthly situational analyses in collaboration with REACH.
• UNFPA (UN Population Fund)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDFS partnered with UNFPA as the sponsoring organization for the GBV AoR (Gender-Based Violence Area of Responsibility) website project, providing technical management and development.
• H2H NetworkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDFS partners with H2H Network in GANNET AI development, connecting humanitarian organizations with AI-powered crisis response tools.
• Save the ChildrencoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSave the Children is a partner in GANNET AI innovation, collaborating on AI tools for humanitarian crisis response.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreTechnology or IntegrationAWS provides cloud infrastructure for DFS technology solutions. DFS migrated HELIX platform data from Linode servers to AWS and GANNET runs on enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure.
• Humanitarian Leadership AcademycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDFS partnered with the Humanitarian Leadership Academy to conduct comprehensive baseline studies and pulse surveys on AI adoption in the humanitarian sector, producing reports, user personas, and interactive dashboards.
• CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCDC is listed as a partner organization, with potential collaboration on health-related humanitarian data analysis.
• ISI FoundationcoreTechnology or IntegrationISI Foundation (based in Turin, Italy) partnered with DFS/iMMAP on research to implement NLP features in DEEP platform. The foundation conducts research in Complex Systems Science.
• CERNcoreTechnology or IntegrationDFS organized hackathons with CERN at Applied Machine Learning Days, collaborating on humanitarian technology research and development.
• EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)coreTechnology or IntegrationDFS collaborated with EPFL on hackathons at Applied Machine Learning Days and hosts student internships. Students work on sentence extraction and classification of humanitarian data from DEEP.
• JKU Linz (Johannes Kepler Universität Linz)coreTechnology or IntegrationDFS collaborates with JKU Linz where students work on NLP projects for humanitarian data. Navid Rekab-saz (Assistant Professor) is a member of the DFS NLP innovation team.
• iMMAP Inc.coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDFS partnered with iMMAP Inc. for Sudan secondary data review analysis, establishing comprehensive data platform for the humanitarian sector. iMMAP is also a DEEP board member.
• Danish Refugee CouncilcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDanish Refugee Council is listed as a partner organization, collaborating on humanitarian response and data analysis projects.
• ToggleCorpcoreTechnology or IntegrationToggleCorp (part of DFS GIN community) is a long-term technical partner in IFRC GO platform development alongside DFS.
• boldcodecoreTechnology or Integrationboldcode is listed as DFS long-term security partner, supporting cybersecurity initiatives for humanitarian technology solutions.
• GBV AoR (Gender-Based Violence Area of Responsibility)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDFS provides technical management and development for the GBV AoR website, modernizing the platform to serve the gender-based violence humanitarian sector.
• REACHcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerREACH partners with DFS on Ukraine humanitarian analysis, providing field-level operational input during the remote analysis process for situational assessments.
• RedR UKcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDFS partnered with RedR UK and Sphere to launch the DRC Digital Humanitarian Academy for CONAFOHD, building digital humanitarian capacity.
• Sphere (humanitarian standards)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDFS partnered with RedR UK and Sphere on the DRC Digital Humanitarian Academy project for CONAFOHD.
• PDC GlobalminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPDC Global is listed as a donor/sponsor/role participant in IFRC GO platform development.
• ELRHAminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerELRHA is listed as a partner organization, supporting humanitarian research and innovation initiatives.
• Save the Children InternationalcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSave the Children is listed as a partner organization, collaborating on humanitarian technology and AI initiatives.
• KoBo (KoboToolbox)coreTechnology or IntegrationKoBo is listed as a partner, with NEAT+ Rural version accessible through KoBo Toolbox for data collection in humanitarian contexts.

Scale indicators16 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• iMMAP: iMMAP is a leading humanitarian information management organization providing data and analysis for humanitarian response. DFS has co-delivered the Sudan SDR with iMMAP and iMMAP sits on the DEEP board, making it the most direct operational peer.
• ACAPS: ACAPS produces independent humanitarian needs analyses and is part of the Norwegian Refugee Council, comparable to DFS's secondary data review offerings such as the Ukraine and Sudan analyses for humanitarian decision-makers.
• REACH (Impact Initiatives): REACH conducts humanitarian needs assessments and works alongside DFS on Ukraine SDR, providing field-level assessments that DFS complements with secondary data review, making them direct operational partners and peers in humanitarian analytics.
• Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT): HOT creates open geospatial data for humanitarian response and disaster preparedness, sharing the humanitarian technology and open-data ethos that DFS applies through DEEP and the GANNET suite.

Broad incumbents

• Palantir Technologies: Palantir provides large-scale data integration and analytics platforms used by governments and humanitarian organizations (e.g., Foundry for crisis response); it competes with DFS at the broader enterprise data layer but operates at vastly greater scale and capitalization.
• Dataminr: Dataminr provides real-time AI-driven event and crisis detection from public data streams, overlapping with GANNET SituationHub's media monitoring and crisis overview capabilities, though at a broader commercial scale.

Emerging players

• Premise Data: Premise Data collects ground-truth data via mobile networks for development and humanitarian use cases, comparable to DFS's data collection efforts (e.g., Lukim Gather) but applied more broadly to commercial and policy markets.
• KoboToolbox (Kobo): KoboToolbox is an open-source mobile data collection platform used widely in humanitarian operations; DFS integrates NEAT+ Rural with Kobo, making it both a partner and a comparable data-collection platform peer.
• ReliefWeb: ReliefWeb is the leading humanitarian information portal operated by OCHA, aggregating reports and jobs; DFS's GANNET Virtual Assistant and SituationHub curate similar humanitarian content with AI overlays, making ReliefWeb a thematic peer.

Others

• Datakind: DataKind applies data science and AI to humanitarian and social impact challenges via pro bono engagements, sharing DFS's data-for-good orientation and serving as a thematic/ecosystem peer in the social impact AI space.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/dfs_org
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/data-friendly-space
• Instagraminstagram.com/datafriendlyspace

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

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