What BioSCape does

BioSCape (Biodiversity Survey of the Cape) is a multinational research collaboration founded in 2021 between US and South African institutions to map and monitor biodiversity in the Greater Cape Floristic Region (GCFR), one of the world's 36 biodiversity hotspots. The project deploys four NASA instruments — AVIRIS-NG (hyperspectral UV/VIS to shortwave infrared), PRISM (hyperspectral ocean color), LVIS (full-waveform LiDAR), and HyTES (thermal imaging spectrometer) — on two Gulfstream aircraft (G-V and G-III), producing co-registered spectral, thermal, and structural observations paired with coordinated field campaigns across terrestrial and aquatic targets. The project is led by Adam Wilson (University at Buffalo), Erin Hestir (UC Merced), and Jasper Slingsby (University of Cape Town), with Phil Brodrick at NASA JPL as Data PI, and involves over 150 scientists from more than 40 institutions.

BioSCape serves research institutions, government agencies (NASA, NRF/SAEON, CapeNature, SANParks, SANBI), UNESCO, and conservation bodies, distributing all data products and training materials as open access through NASA's ORNL DAAC, NASA EarthData portals, Zenodo/GitHub notebooks, and an interactive MMGIS-AVIRIS coverage portal. The project is not a commercial entity: it has no revenue, no pricing tiers, and operates on government funding from NASA, the South African National Research Foundation, and UNESCO. Outputs include peer-reviewed publications in npj Biodiversity and Nature Reviews Biodiversity, the documentary film 'The Spectrum of Life,' ARSET and ESA training workshops, and a citizen science presence on iNaturalist.

The airborne campaign was conducted in October 2023 (38 research flights: 16 with G-V and 22 with G-III), delivered on schedule and budget despite complex international logistics. BioSCape won the NASA Group Achievement Award in June 2025, received 100% favorable ratings from surveyed science team members, and is being used as the methodological model — including its Nagoya Protocol compliance and 'No Parachute Science' framework — for two upcoming NASA terrestrial ecology campaigns.

Name

BioSCape

Website

https://bioscape.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

BioSCape is a NASA-funded multinational research collaboration using airborne hyperspectral, thermal, and LiDAR remote sensing with field observations to map biodiversity in South Africa's Greater Cape Floristic Region. It serves researchers, government agencies, and conservation bodies with open-access datasets.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Biodiversity Remote Sensing Research

NAICS

Surveying and Mapping (except Geophysical) Services (54137)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Terrestrial Ecology & Habitat Surveys (EUAHAHAA)

Keywords

• Biodiversity monitoring
• Airborne remote sensing
• Hyperspectral imaging
• Field biodiversity data
• Open access research data

Headquarters

HQ city

Cape Town

HQ country

South Africa

HQ region

Africa

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Others

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

BioSCape (Biodiversity Survey of the Cape) is a NASA-led multinational research project that integrates airborne remote sensing and field biodiversity observations to map and monitor terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem structure, function, and composition in the Greater Cape Floristic Region. The airborne component deploys four NASA instruments (AVIRIS-NG, PRISM, LVIS, HyTES) on two aircraft to produce co-registered hyperspectral, thermal, and LiDAR datasets, while coordinated field campaigns collect plant traits, spectral measurements, freshwater species, and marine biodiversity data. All airborne and field datasets are released as open-access products archived at NASA's ORNL DAAC and the EarthData project pages.

Product overview

BioSCape (Biodiversity Survey of the Cape) is a research project that provides open-access airborne and field biodiversity data. The core offering is the BioSCape airborne data (AVIRIS-NG, PRISM, LVIS, and HyTES instruments) paired with field observations collected during NASA's first biodiversity-focused campaign in South Africa's Greater Cape Floristic Region in 2023. Supporting resources include research publications, the documentary film 'The Spectrum of Life,' training notebooks and workshops, an infographic, citizen science tools via iNaturalist, and an airborne data coverage portal. All data products are freely accessible through NASA's ORNL DAAC archive and dedicated project pages.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• BioSCape Airborne Data Open-access airborne remote sensing dataset collected using four NASA instruments (AVIRIS-NG, PRISM, LVIS, and HyTES) aboard two aircraft, providing hyperspectral VSWIR imaging, thermal imaging, and LiDAR data over the Greater Cape Floristic Region.
• BioSCape Field Observations Comprehensive biodiversity-related field observations including plant traits, spectral measurements, freshwater and marine species data, and ecosystem function measurements collected during the 2023 campaign.
• BioSCape Data Portal (MMGIS-AVIRIS) Interactive web portal showing quicklooks of all airborne data coverage with toggleable layers to view acquisitions from different sensors across the study region.

Quantifiable outcome

• 100% of surveyed science team members agreed BioSCape advanced scientific knowledge and was well-executed
• +3 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

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

• Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) — South AfricacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 October 2023CSIR researchers deployed Africa's only hyperspectral radiometric buoy in Theewaterskloof Dam to study microalgae biodiversity. Also led the Hyperspectral signal processing project (HysTAA) for terrestrial and aquatic radiative transfer modeling.
• NASA Earth Science Division / Biological Diversity ProgramflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerNASA serves as the primary funder and operator of the BioSCape airborne campaign. NASA's Woody Turner of the Biological Diversity Program at NASA Headquarters provided leadership support. NASA contributed four instruments (AVIRIS-NG, PRISM, LVIS, HyTES) on two aircraft and coordinated with multiple NASA centers (ARC, GSFC, JPL, JSC, LaRC). BioSCape was managed by the Earth Science Project Office at NASA Ames Research Center.
• National Research Foundation / SAEON (South Africa)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerNRF/SAEON provided South African government funding and coordinated additional high-resolution imagery and LiDAR data collection flights. SAEON played a central role in navigating geopolitical relationships and ensuring in-country operational support.
• University at BuffalocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAdam Wilson (University at Buffalo) served as co-PI and Terrestrial Science Lead. University at Buffalo is one of three institutional leads for the project alongside UC Merced and UCT.
• University of California, MercedcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerErin Hestir (UC Merced) served as co-PI and Marine Science Lead. UC Merced co-led the multinational research project. UC Merced news highlighted the research findings in February 2025.
• University of Cape TowncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJasper Slingsby (UCT) served as co-I and South African Lead. UCT was the South African institutional lead and provided local scientific coordination. UCT's news office covered the 2021 project launch and ongoing activities.
• CapeNaturecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCapeNature is a South African conservation authority and one of the key partner organizations providing in-country conservation expertise and ensuring BioSCape data supports South African conservation goals.
• South African National Parks (SANParks)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSANParks is a key partner providing access to national park lands for field data collection and airborne operations, and ensuring data supports South African conservation priorities.
• South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSANBI is a key partner providing biodiversity data, GIS infrastructure, and expertise. SANBI is a leader in conservation efforts across Africa, and BioSCape outputs are designed to support their ecosystem management work.
• NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)coreTechnology or IntegrationPhil Brodrick at NASA JPL serves as Data PI and led the BioSCape Multi-Sensor Data Integration project. JPL also led the Intrinsic Dimensionality and Data Fusion project (Kerry Cawse-Nicholson). Multiple JPL projects contributed to airborne data processing and calibration.
• NASA Earth Science Project Office (ESPO) at Ames Research CentercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNASA ESPO managed the BioSCape airborne campaign logistics and operations, coordinating the 38 total research flights across two aircraft and multiple NASA centers.
• US State DepartmentcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerYears of relationship-building with the U.S. State Department enabled seamless collaboration, helping BioSCape navigate geopolitical challenges without delays or budget impacts during the international campaign.
• Fishwater FilmsminorOthersFishwater Films produced 'The Spectrum of Life,' a short documentary about BioSCape, directed by Otto Whitehead and Jeremy Shelton. The film celebrates local biodiversity and NASA's role in conservation.
• Nature journals (npj Biodiversity, Nature Reviews Biodiversity)minorOthersBioSCape research findings published in flagship open-access journals, including the 2025 overview paper: 'The biodiversity survey of the Cape (BioSCape), integrating remote sensing with biodiversity science' in npj Biodiversity.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• The Nature Conservancy: Large international conservation NGO applying science to conservation planning in biodiversity hotspots. BioSCape's CapeNature, SANParks, and SANBI partners operate in adjacent territory, and TNC shares BioSCape's use of science-based tools to drive conservation decisions in priority landscapes.
• GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Intergovernmental open-data network aggregating global biodiversity occurrence records. Comparable to BioSCape in mission (open-access biodiversity data infrastructure for science and policy) and structure (international, multi-institution collaboration), though GBIF focuses on occurrence data rather than airborne imaging spectroscopy.
• ESA Copernicus Programme: European Union's Earth observation programme offering Sentinel satellites and services, including biodiversity-relevant missions like Sentinel-2. Comparable to BioSCape in supporting global ecosystem monitoring from space with open data, though operated at a much larger institutional scale.
• NASA GEDI (Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation): NASA's spaceborne LiDAR mission for global vegetation structure. BioSCape explicitly supports GEDI validation with airborne LiDAR, and both share the goal of mapping biodiversity-relevant vegetation structure using LiDAR — GEDI from orbit, BioSCape from aircraft.
• UN Biodiversity Lab: UNDP-supported public platform providing spatial data for biodiversity and conservation policy. Comparable to BioSCape in mission (making biodiversity-relevant spatial data accessible for conservation decisions) and end users (government agencies and conservation bodies), though UN Biodiversity Lab is broader in scope and geographically diffuse.
• NASA EMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation): NASA imaging spectroscopy mission on the International Space Station. BioSCape data are explicitly intended to support EMIT's calibration and ecological applications, making the two highly comparable in instrument heritage and biodiversity-relevant hyperspectral science.

Direct peers

• NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network): A NSF-funded continental-scale ecological observatory that combines airborne remote sensing with ground-based biodiversity and ecosystem measurements. Directly comparable to BioSCape in mission (integrating remote sensing with field ecology to monitor biodiversity at landscape scale) and structure (multi-institution, multi-year, open data).
• NASA Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) Mission: Planned NASA hyperspectral satellite mission that BioSCape outputs are explicitly designed to support. Both share hyperspectral + thermal instrument philosophy and the biodiversity-from-space scientific agenda, with BioSCape serving as a calibration/validation analog for SBG.

Emerging players

• iNaturalist: Citizen science biodiversity platform integrated directly into BioSCape as a ground-truth data collection tool in the Greater Cape Floristic Region. Both rely on community-contributed observations for biodiversity monitoring at scale, though iNaturalist is broader geographically and consumer-facing.
• Map of Life (MOL): Yale-led platform integrating species occurrence data, remote sensing, and models to map biodiversity globally. Comparable to BioSCape in using remote sensing to fill biodiversity data gaps at landscape scale, with both targeting similar scientific and conservation user communities.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/bioscape_usa_sa
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/bioscape-io

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about BioSCape