What RiSE Group EAFIT does

RiSE Group (Research in Spatial Economics) is a multidisciplinary research group and academic spin-off of Universidad EAFIT, headquartered in Medellín, Colombia, with a team of approximately 13 people. It operates as a non-profit research entity specializing in quantitative spatial analysis applied to urban planning, regional economics, and public policy. The group serves Colombian government agencies, public utilities, chambers of commerce, and international organizations such as the World Bank, UN-Habitat, and the Inter-American Development Bank.

The group's core technology stack combines machine learning applied to satellite imagery, natural language processing, spatial optimization algorithms, and system dynamics modeling. Its product portfolio includes urban forecasting models (Urban Pixel, Newton, Pascal) that produce highly disaggregated spatial predictions of population growth and utility demand; open-source and commercial regional design software (ClusterPy); a web platform for testimony geocoding (SAAT); an address geocoder; an economic multiplier analysis platform (SAME/Multiplicadores); and the City Prosperity Index (CPI) developed for UN-Habitat, which has been applied in hundreds of cities globally. The proprietary P-regions family of algorithms represents original academic contributions to spatial aggregation, validated through peer-reviewed publications in journals such as Royal Society Publishing and ScienceDirect.

Revenue is generated through two primary streams: (1) project-based research contracts awarded competitively or by direct invitation from government agencies, multilateral organizations, and private companies — historical contract values have ranged from approximately USD 20,000 for short international studies to roughly USD 330,000 for large Colombian government assignments; and (2) software licensing to enterprise clients such as Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM) and Cámara de Comercio de Medellín. The go-to-market is sales-led, relying on academic reputation, peer-reviewed publications, and direct engagement with public-sector decision-makers in Colombia and abroad. Distribution is direct, supplemented by open-source releases (ClusterPy) and a content-marketing apparatus including a newsletter, podcast (The sPEAKer), video series (Cityzen), and policy briefs.

Name

RiSE Group EAFIT

Legal name

RiSE Group EAFIT

Website

https://rise-group.org

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

RiSE Group EAFIT is a 13-person academic spin-off of Universidad EAFIT in Medellín, Colombia, developing proprietary spatial-analysis software and urban forecasting models licensed to Colombian public utilities, government agencies, and international organizations such as the World Bank and UN-Habitat.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Medellín

HQ country

Colombia

HQ region

Latin America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Research Project Contracts: RiSE Group secures funded research contracts from government agencies, multilateral organizations, and private companies. Projects are awarded through competitive proposals and direct invitations, covering specific urban and regional analysis deliverables.
2. Software Licensing: The group licenses proprietary software tools (Pascal, ClusterPy, SAME) to government utilities and private companies for commercial use in urban planning and economic analysis.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

RiSE Group EAFIT is a university-affiliated research group that develops spatial analysis software and conducts applied research on urban growth, regional design, and city sustainability. The group provides consulting and research services to government agencies, public utilities, and international organizations, while licensing proprietary software tools (such as ClusterPy, Pascal, Newton, and SAME) for spatial analysis, water demand forecasting, and economic multiplier analysis.

Product overview

RiSE Group EAFIT is a research group at Universidad EAFIT in Medellín, Colombia that develops spatial analysis software, methodologies, and research tools for urban and regional planning. The portfolio includes standalone software tools (ClusterPy, SAAT, GeoCoder, Multiplicadores), urban forecasting models (Pascal, Newton, Urban Pixel), and analytical methodologies (City Prosperity Index, P-regions models). The software suite operates independently and is applied through consulting projects for government agencies and international organizations. Research initiatives like PEAK-urban provide capacity building for sustainable urban development.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• PEAK-Urban: Project for Creating Capacity for the Future City in Developing Countries
• Visión PEAK
• The sPEAKer
• Cityzen

Products and services

• ClusterPy Open-source and commercial software for spatial data aggregation and region design. Enables aggregation of basic spatial units into larger regions while preserving confidentiality and optimizing homogeneity criteria, for use by urban planners, governments, and researchers.
• SAAT (Sistema para el Análisis Automático de Testimonios) Web platform combining text mining, natural language processing, and spatial data analysis to identify and geocode information from testimonies and declarations. Built for regional peace, development, and reconciliation observatories.
• GeoCoder

Quantifiable outcome

• Newton model acquired by EPM (Colombia's largest public utility) for water demand forecasting in new markets
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability9 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

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

• Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEPM, Colombia's largest public utilities company, has partnered with RiSE on multiple projects including the Pascal model (water demand forecasting, 2011), Newton model (water demand forecasting, financing 592,417,458 COP), and Urban Pixel. EPM licenses RiSE's forecasting tools for infrastructure planning in the Valle de Aburrá metropolitan area.
• Cámara de Comercio de Medellín para AntioquiacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCámara de Comercio partnered with RiSE for cluster analysis and economic multiplier analysis of the Valle de Aburrá (2010, financing 114,250,888 COP), licensing the SAME software tool for economic analysis.
• Gobernación de AntioquiacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe departmental government of Antioquia has partnered with RiSE on multiple projects including tourism industry growth strategies (2020, 210,000,000 COP), territorial development criteria for Urabá (2012, 682,783,900 COP), and evaluation of the Parques Educativos program (2015, 665,289,001 COP).
• Secretaría de Desarrollo Económico del Municipio de MedellíncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe municipal economic development secretariat partnered with RiSE for economic potential analysis of Comuna 14 (El Poblado, 2013, 216,766,300 COP) and Comuna 11 (Laureles-Estadio, 2015, 256,172,950 COP).
• UN-HabitatflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerRiSE developed the City Prosperity Index (CPI) for UN-Habitat (2014, 63,000 USD), a multidimensional index measuring city prosperity across productivity, infrastructure, quality of life, equity, environmental sustainability, and governance. The CPI has been applied in hundreds of cities worldwide.
• Banco Mundial (World Bank)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe World Bank partnered with RiSE on territorial inequality analysis in Latin America (financing 25,000 USD) and on regionalization design for Croatia's National Development Strategy 2030 (financing 20,000 USD), using gravity-based regionalization models.
• BID (Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo) y Banco de la RepúblicacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIDB and Colombia's central bank partnered with RiSE to analyze gender and regional employment disparities in Colombia (2013, financing 37,592,722 COP), including collaboration with Universidad de Barcelona, Universidad de Los Andes, and Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana.
• Departamento para la Prosperidad Social (DPS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDPS partnered with RiSE to develop the SAAT (Automatic Testimony Analysis System) for peace, development, and reconciliation observatories (2015, financing 1,300,000,000 COP), combining NLP, text mining, and spatial analysis.
• RIMISP (Centro Latinoamericano para el Desarrollo Rural)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRIMISP partnered with RiSE and Colombia's Departamento Nacional de Planeación (DNP) on the functional subregionalization of Colombia (2018, financing 84,756,086 COP), as part of Colombia's OECD membership requirements.
• Universidad EAFITcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRiSE is a spin-off of Universidad EAFIT in Medellín. The group maintains a close affiliation with the university, and its research team includes faculty and researchers from the institution.
• Fundación ECSIM (Centro de Estudios en Economía Sistémica)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerECSIM collaborated with RiSE on the cluster analysis project for Valle de Aburrá, contributing system dynamics models to project input-output matrices into the future.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves1 record

Direct peers

• Azavea (Element 84): Geospatial software firm (now operating as Element 84) building open-source and commercial tools for civic, environmental, and infrastructure applications. Comparable to RiSE on open-source GIS tooling and public-sector analytics focus.
• Space Syntax Limited: Urban analytics consultancy applying spatial network analysis to city planning and design. Comparable to RiSE's quantitative spatial analysis and regional design research, with similar academic-to-applied consulting positioning.
• UrbanFootprint: Urban planning analytics platform delivering scenario modeling, land use, and infrastructure planning for public agencies. Direct functional overlap with RiSE's urban growth and infrastructure forecasting models (Urban Pixel, Newton, Pascal).
• Caliper Corporation (Maptitude): GIS software and analytics provider for transportation, demographics, and urban planning applications. Comparable to RiSE in delivering specialized spatial analytics tools and consulting to public-sector clients.
• CARTO: Location intelligence and spatial analytics platform offering cloud-native geospatial tools to enterprises and governments. Overlaps with RiSE's ClusterPy and urban analytics offerings, particularly for city-level decision support use cases.

Broad incumbents

• Sidewalk Labs (Alphabet): Alphabet's urban innovation unit focused on data-driven city solutions. Comparable in applying advanced analytics to urban planning, but at much larger scale and with broader scope than RiSE's research-led approach.
• Trimble: Global provider of geospatial and infrastructure solutions serving utilities, government, and construction. Comparable to RiSE in the geospatial-utility intersection but operates across a much broader technology portfolio.
• Mapbox: Mapping and location platform used by enterprises and developers worldwide. Comparable in spatial data infrastructure underlying RiSE's geocoding and address standardization work, though Mapbox is at vastly greater commercial scale.
• Esri: Global leader in GIS and spatial analytics software (ArcGIS). Directly comparable to RiSE on spatial analysis methodology, but operates at vastly larger scale across all sectors; RiSE competes on specialized urban economics and Latin American domain depth.

Emerging players

• Stamen Design: Data visualization and cartography studio creating maps and visual analytics for cities and media. Tangentially comparable to RiSE on urban data communication and city-focused visual outputs, though smaller in scope and primarily creative.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/playlist?list=PL1P4ZxQHZ2GrY7_UNfhkw9qQVKQcBfRVp
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/rise-group-eafit

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about RiSE Group EAFIT