What Taylor Geospatial Engine does

Taylor Geospatial Engine (TGE) is a St. Louis nonprofit established in June 2023 with philanthropic funding from Andrew C. Taylor, executive chairman of Enterprise Mobility. Its mandate is to accelerate the commercialization of geospatial AI research originating in academia, specifically by addressing the bottleneck of applying machine learning to satellite imagery for feature extraction. The organization operates the Innovation Bridge Program, a 9-month structured framework that embeds industry technologists inside academic research teams, gathers stakeholder requirements, ensures cloud-native publication, and documents progress openly. Core outputs include the Fields of The World (FTW) benchmark dataset — the largest global dataset for agricultural field boundary detection with 1.6 million parcel boundaries across 24 countries — together with pre-trained models, the fiboa interoperability schema, command-line tooling, and a browser-based web application.

TGE's product surface is built on open-source computer vision models trained on Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery, paired with instance and semantic segmentation outputs. The fiboa schema now standardizes over 100 million field boundaries globally and is supported by ~40 converters and validator tools, with growing adoption across agribusiness, government, and NGO stakeholders including Microsoft, Planet Labs, Bayer, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, World Resources Institute, and UN FAO. The organization does not generate commercial revenue; all datasets, models, schemas, and tools are released under open licenses distributed through Source Cooperative, AWS S3, GitHub, and Hugging Face. As of March 2026, TGE consolidated with its sister organization, the Taylor Geospatial Institute, into a single nonprofit entity called Taylor Geospatial.

Name

Taylor Geospatial Engine

Legal name

Taylor Geospatial Engine

Website

https://tgengine.org.

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Taylor Geospatial Engine is a St. Louis nonprofit that accelerates commercialization of geospatial AI research through its Innovation Bridge Program, producing open-source datasets, models, and interoperability tools for agricultural field boundary detection from satellite imagery.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Geospatial AI Software and Data

NAICS

Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services (541360)

SIC

Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Satellite Imagery & Remote Sensing Geospatial Platforms (BPAMANAM)

akta.pro secondary industries

Geospatial Data Management & Enterprise GIS (Geodatabases, Web GIS, Spatial Analytics) (EUAHAKAC), Data Engineering, Integration & ETL/ELT Services (BPAEAHAB)

Keywords

• Geospatial AI platform
• Satellite imagery analytics
• Field boundary detection
• Open source geospatial
• Earth observation data

Headquarters

HQ city

St Louis

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, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Philanthropic / Grant Funding: TGE is a nonprofit organization funded by philanthropic donations. It was established in June 2023 with founding investment from Andrew C. Taylor. Both original organizations (Taylor Geospatial Institute and Taylor Geospatial Engine) were launched with philanthropic support from Enterprise Mobility executive chairman Andy Taylor. TGE does not generate commercial revenue from products or services.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Taylor Geospatial Engine is a nonprofit accelerator that matures academic geospatial AI research toward commercial impact through its Innovation Bridge program. Its core deliverables are the Fields of The World (FTW) benchmark dataset of 1.6M agricultural parcel boundaries across 24 countries, the fiboa interoperability schema, pre-trained instance segmentation models, an open-source Python tooling stack, and a browser-based FTW web app for satellite-imagery field boundary extraction.

Product overview

Taylor Geospatial Engine operates as a nonprofit accelerator for geospatial AI innovation, organized around the Innovation Bridge Program that connects academic research with commercial applications. The core product portfolio centers on the Fields of The World (FTW) ecosystem—a comprehensive suite for agricultural field boundary extraction from satellite imagery. This includes the FTW benchmark dataset (1.6M parcel boundaries globally), FTW Web App for browser-based inference, pre-trained models on Hugging Face, and the ftw-baselines open-source codebase. Supporting infrastructure includes the fiboa data schema for interoperability and associated CLI tools (ftw-tools, fiboa-cli) for data conversion and processing. An LLM demo (fiboaGPT) showcases natural language querying of field boundary data. The flagship AI for Earth Observation and Field Boundaries Initiative runs in phases, with Phase 1 (2024) focused on dataset creation and Phase 2 (2025+) targeting commercial adoption and user feedback integration.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Fields of The World (FTW): The largest global benchmark dataset for agricultural field boundary detection from satellite imagery, developed as part of TGE's Innovation Bridge Program.
• Innovation Bridge
• fiboa (Field Boundaries for Agriculture)

Products and services

• Innovation Bridge Program Structured nine-month accelerator framework that connects academic geospatial AI researchers with industry sponsors and stakeholders, providing seed funding, embedded technologists, cloud publishing infrastructure, and stakeholder workshops to mature research outputs into commercially usable, open-source technology.
• AI for Earth Observation and Field Boundaries Initiative

Quantifiable outcome

• Largest global benchmark dataset for agricultural field boundary detection: 1.6 million parcel boundaries, 70,462 sample chips, 24 countries, 4 continents
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

AI capability6 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

22 partnerships are on record, tiered core, key, supporting and flagship.

• Washington University in St. LouiscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerTGE's flagship academic partner. Dr. Nathan Jacobs and his Multimodal Vision Research Laboratory (MVRL) received seed funding under the Innovation Bridge program. The lab leads data collection, preprocessing, baseline model development, training, evaluation, and benchmark construction for the Fields of The World initiative. Washington University also co-hosted the Innovation Bridge workshop and public showcase events. Aaron Bobick, Dean of WashU's School of Engineering & Applied Science, serves as Secretary on TGE's Board.
• Arizona State University (Dr. Hannah Kerner Lab)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDr. Hannah Kerner, Assistant Professor at ASU's School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, received seed funding as a core academic team member of the Innovation Bridge. Her lab initiated the Fields of The World project and leads AI/ML research for agricultural field boundary extraction. Dr. Kerner is also AI/ML Lead for NASA Harvest and NASA Acres, and Center Faculty for ASU's Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science.
• Microsoft AI for Good Research LabcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerParticipated in the FTW initiative as a core academic-industry partner. Researcher Caleb Robinson contributed to the Fields of The World project, bringing expertise in large-scale satellite imagery data product development using AI/ML. Microsoft provided perspective as a sponsor in Phase 2 kickoff workshop, focusing on AI for Earth Observation and field boundary applications.
• Radiant Earth FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCore strategic partner providing the Source Cooperative cloud data-sharing platform and technical/data stewardship for the Innovation Bridge. Radiant Earth's team, led by Executive Director Jed Sundwall (also a TGE Industry Fellow), manages the program's use of Source Cooperative as its data-sharing utility. Michelle Roby serves as Developer Advocate. Radiant Earth also led the development of the fiboa schema and manages the Cloud-Native Geospatial Foundation.
• Cloud-Native Geospatial FoundationcoreTechnology or IntegrationCore technology partner providing cloud-native geospatial standards and infrastructure. The Foundation developed the fiboa (Field Boundaries for Agriculture) specification and ecosystem, including the converter tools, validator tools, and technical documentation. Matthias Mohr and the Foundation team contributed the core specification for field boundary data interoperability. TGE partnered with the Foundation's tools for its first Innovation Bridge initiative.
• Planet LabskeyStrategic or Co-development PartnerParticipated as industry stakeholder providing earth observation imagery data and expertise. Planet is a provider of daily earth observation satellite imagery and higher-level agricultural data products including field boundaries, crop biomass, soil water content, and land surface temperature. Senior Product Manager Ariel Zajdband contributed to Innovation Bridge workshops discussing commercialization opportunities for FTW.
• BayerkeyStrategic or Co-development PartnerRepresented by the Ecosystem Services Micro Enterprises team at Bayer, one of the largest agricultural companies globally. Jason Riopel from Bayer participated as an industry stakeholder in Innovation Bridge workshops, sharing real-world workflow requirements and providing feedback on field boundary usability for sustainable agriculture and carbon measurement. Bayer is a sponsor in Phase 2, focused on sustainable agriculture and ag tech applications.
• World Resources Institute (WRI)keyStrategic or Co-development PartnerParticipated as a stakeholder and sustainability partner. WRI is the nonprofit behind Global Forest Watch and other sustainability initiatives. Tristan Grupp, Agricultural Data Scientist at WRI, provided functional requirements for aligning FTW with WRI's needs during workshops. WRI is interested in field boundaries for monitoring and sustainability applications, including EUDR compliance.
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) GeoAI GroupkeyStrategic or Co-development PartnerParticipated in the Innovation Bridge workshop bringing deep government research experience with AI/ML applied to geospatial data. ORNL is one of the most innovative geospatial organizations in the national government sector and contributed expertise to the field boundary initiative.
• Danforth Plant Science CentersupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerParticipated as a nonprofit research partner bringing together plant science expertise. The Center is dedicated to answering humanity's most profound challenges through plant science research and contributed to the Innovation Bridge workshop discussions on agricultural AI applications.
• VardasupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerParticipated in the initial Innovation Bridge workshop. Varda is an initiative building collaboration around FieldID, a global system for identifying any field. Represented the perspective of field identification standards in the agricultural data ecosystem.
• TetraTechsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerParticipated in the initial workshop. TetraTech is a consulting firm implementing the Enabling Crop Analytics at Scale (ECAAS) initiative, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, focused on catalyzing agricultural remote-sensing data development and uptake in smallholder farming systems.
• Intent AgsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerParticipated in the Innovation Bridge workshop. Intent Ag is a rapidly growing AgTech company focused on field trials, business decisions, and sustainability, bringing a commercial practitioner's perspective on field boundary needs.
• Miraterra SoilsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerBecame a committed collaborator during the project. Director of Remote Sensing Dave McCaffrey contributed expertise on soil and agricultural field analysis, sharing views on commercialization opportunities for FTW at the public showcase.
• Google Research (Sustainable Agriculture Team)supportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerParticipated in remote sessions during the initial workshop. Representatives from the sustainable agriculture team shared their work on the Agriculture Understanding Platform, which creates field boundaries and ML-derived insights for all of India, contributing to understanding of global field boundary needs.
• DigiFarmsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerParticipated in remote sessions. DigiFarm is a startup building field boundaries and other agriculture insights using AI/ML and satellite imagery, bringing the startup perspective on commercial field boundary solutions.
• RegrowsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerParticipated in remote sessions. Regrow is an AgTech company focused on resilient agriculture and detecting sustainability practices, with extensive experience using AI/ML to create field boundaries from satellite imagery.
• UN FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization)keyStrategic or Co-development PartnerParticipated in remote sessions. UN FAO is leading the EUDR (EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products) forest regulations that will require companies to prove fields they've sourced from have not been recently deforested. FAO's involvement ensures FTW aligns with international regulatory requirements for agricultural supply chain transparency.
• Open Supply HubsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerParticipated in remote sessions. Open Supply Hub is a nonprofit seeking to map and create unique identifiers for every supply chain production point in the world, whose work will touch field boundaries in the future.
• ALCISsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerParticipated in remote sessions. ALCIS is an organization working on using geospatial insights to help achieve sustainable development goals, contributing the development perspective from international development contexts.
• Fall Line CapitalsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerParticipated in remote sessions. Fall Line Capital is an innovative investor in farmland and AgTech companies, bringing the investment and capital perspective to agricultural technology needs.
• Taylor Geospatial Institute (TGI)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerTGE's sister organization that fuels research and collaboration around innovative geospatial approaches at eight Midwest research organizations. TGI focuses on core geospatial science and applying it to sustainable agriculture, public health, and national security. In March 2026, TGE and TGI consolidated into a single nonprofit entity called Taylor Geospatial, with a unified mission to accelerate geospatial AI development and real-world application.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Regrow: AgTech company using AI/ML to create field boundaries from satellite imagery for sustainability and resilient agriculture. Innovation Bridge participant; comparable computer vision and field boundary work, but operates as a commercial sustainability-focused platform.
• NASA Harvest: NASA program advancing satellite-based agriculture and food security monitoring; Hannah Kerner (FTW lead) serves as AI/ML Lead. Comparable mission in agricultural Earth observation and food security, with federal government backing.
• DigiFarm: Startup building field boundaries and other agriculture insights using AI/ML and satellite imagery. Innovation Bridge participant; highly comparable technical approach and target use case (field boundary generation), with a more startup-focused commercial orientation.
• TetraTech ECAAS: Implements the Enabling Crop Analytics at Scale (ECAAS) initiative funded by the Gates Foundation, focused on catalyzing agricultural remote-sensing data development for smallholder farming systems. Innovation Bridge participant; comparable in applying Earth observation to smallholder agriculture, but as a consulting implementation.

Broad incumbents

• Planet Labs: Major commercial Earth observation satellite operator providing daily imagery and higher-level agricultural data products including field boundaries, crop biomass, and soil water content. Direct Innovation Bridge partner; comparable end use cases (agriculture, defense, sustainability) but Planet operates as a commercial entity.
• Esri: Dominant GIS platform provider whose ArcGIS ecosystem defines enterprise geospatial workflows. Leadership connection (Jennifer Marcus previously consulted at Esri); comparable in addressing geospatial data management and spatial analytics, though Esri operates at vastly broader commercial scale.
• Google Research Sustainable Agriculture: Google team behind the Agriculture Understanding Platform, which creates field boundaries and ML-derived insights for all of India. Comparable AI-driven field boundary work and global scale ambition, but as part of a much larger commercial entity.
• Microsoft AI for Earth: Microsoft's AI for Good program supports AI for agriculture and environmental applications, including the AI for Good Research Lab (FTW collaborator Caleb Robinson). Comparable in applying AI to Earth observation; vastly larger organization with broader scope.

Direct peers

• Radiant Earth Foundation: Closest peer: nonprofit focused on open geospatial AI and Earth observation data infrastructure. Radiant Earth operates Source Cooperative (where TGE hosts data), co-developed the fiboa schema, and shares overlapping mission, leadership (Jed Sundwall is a TGE Industry Fellow), and ecosystem partners.
• Cloud-Native Geospatial Foundation: Foundation that developed the fiboa specification and ecosystem tools (converters, validators). A core technology partner of TGE and co-developer of the same field boundary data infrastructure; comparable scope in cloud-native geospatial standards.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/taylor-geospatial-engine

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Taylor Geospatial Engine