What Taylor Geospatial does

Taylor Geospatial is a St. Louis-based nonprofit founded in 2026 through the merger of Taylor Geospatial Institute and Taylor Geospatial Engine and spun off from Saint Louis University. The organization develops geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI) for global public benefit, with a primary technical focus on agricultural field boundary detection from satellite imagery and humanitarian food-security applications. Its flagship initiative, Fields of the World, released in April 2026 the first globally consistent agricultural field boundary dataset at 10m resolution, covering 24 countries and all 21 APEC member economies, and published an assessment of more than 70 geospatial AI models alongside a novel model architecture for global-scale inference. Adjacent capabilities include promptable uncertainty-aware GeoAI with natural-language query interfaces, plant-available soil water capacity mapping, agricultural nitrous oxide emissions modeling, and humanitarian early-warning systems such as the Afghanistan PULSE platform operated with the UN World Food Programme.

Taylor Geospatial's core outputs are datasets (e.g., Global Field Boundary Dataset in GeoParquet, PMTiles, and Zarr formats), the fiboa field-boundary data standard, benchmarking frameworks for geospatial foundation models, and open-source code released on GitHub and hosted via Source Cooperative. The Geospatial Innovation for Food Security (GIFS) program channels philanthropic and partner co-investment into flagship and pilot projects addressing agri-food supply chain resilience, crop shifting, and nitrogen use efficiency, with flagship funding of up to $550K per team over 18 months. Strategic partners include Microsoft AI for Good Lab (compute and co-development), AWS (GIFS co-investment), NASA Harvest and FAO (dataset users), WFP and REACH Initiative (Afghanistan PULSE deployment), Wherobots (planetary-scale inference), and academic labs at Arizona State University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Clark University.

The organization's business model is philanthropic and grant-based rather than commercial: all datasets, models, and tools are released free of charge as digital public goods, there is no pricing model, and the company does not disclose revenue. Distribution is API-adjacent but not API-based — outputs are delivered as cloud-native files and self-serve web tools rather than authenticated endpoints. Funding originates from Andy Taylor (Executive Chairman of Enterprise Mobility) with programmatic co-investment from AWS and Microsoft, and the organization is governed by a board chaired by Robert Cardillo with Elliott Kellner as President. As of the available data, Taylor Geospatial operates with 11–50 employees and serves humanitarian organizations, research institutions, agricultural technology companies, and government agencies across at least 13 countries.

Name

Taylor Geospatial

Legal name

Taylor Geospatial

Website

https://taylorgeospatial.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2026

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Taylor Geospatial is a St. Louis-based nonprofit that develops open-source geospatial AI datasets, models, and tools for global public benefit, with a primary focus on agricultural field boundary detection and food security applications for humanitarian organizations, researchers, governments, and AgriTech firms.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Geospatial AI Software

NAICS

Surveying and Mapping (except Geophysical) Services (541370)

SIC

Agricultural Services (700), Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374)

akta.pro primary industry

Field Mapping, GIS & Remote Sensing Analytics (AFAAAFAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Satellite Imagery & Remote Sensing Geospatial Platforms (BPAMANAM), Remote Sensing & Earth Observation Analytics (Satellite/UAV/LiDAR, Image Processing) (EUAHAKAD), Soil & Field Mapping Analytics (EC Mapping, Zone Delineation) (AFABAMAH)

Keywords

• Geospatial artificial intelligence
• Satellite imagery analytics
• Agricultural field boundaries
• Food security monitoring
• Open source geoai

Headquarters

HQ city

Saint 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, Others

Revenue model

1. Philanthropic Funding and Grants: Taylor Geospatial is a nonprofit organization funded primarily through philanthropy and grants. The organization was formed with support from Andy Taylor, Executive Chairman of Enterprise Mobility, and receives co-investment from partners such as AWS for specific programs like the Geospatial Innovation for Food Security (GIFS) challenge.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Taylor Geospatial is a nonprofit organization that develops and openly releases geospatial AI (GeoAI) datasets, models, and tools for global public benefit. Its core offerings are the Fields of the World initiative (delivering the first globally consistent agricultural field boundary dataset at 10m resolution, benchmark assessments of 70+ GeoAI models, and inference tools) and the Geospatial Innovation for Food Security (GIFS) challenge program funding applied GeoAI research for food supply chain resilience, crop shifting, and nitrogen use efficiency.

Product overview

Taylor Geospatial is a nonprofit organization that operates as a research and development entity focused on geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI) for global public benefit. The organization does not sell a commercial product but develops and releases open-source datasets, models, and tools. Its core offerings include the Fields of the World initiative (producing the first global agricultural field boundary dataset with 70+ model assessments), the Geospatial Innovation for Food Security (GIFS) challenge program funding research projects in food systems, and upcoming Features of the World infrastructure mapping. Key outputs are distributed as cloud-native datasets and open-source resources rather than licensed software products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Fields of the World: An open ecosystem for agricultural field boundary detection combining a global benchmark dataset, baseline ML models, inference tools, and web applications.
• Geospatial Innovation for Food Security (GIFS)
• Features of the World

Products and services

• Fields of the World An open ecosystem for agricultural field boundary detection combining a global benchmark dataset, baseline ML models, inference tools, and web applications. Phase 1 released the largest benchmark dataset for training models to infer field boundaries from satellite imagery; Phase 2 released assessment of over 70 geospatial AI models and a high-performing model architecture for global field boundary inference. For researchers, NGOs, and governments managing agricultural systems worldwide.
• Global Field Boundary Dataset First globally consistent dataset of agricultural field boundaries at 10m resolution, covering 24 countries across multiple continents with diverse agricultural systems from smallholder plots to large commercial farms. Available as cloud-native formats (GeoParquet, PMTiles, Zarr) on Source Cooperative with confidence layers for downstream users in research, humanitarian, and government contexts.
• Geospatial Innovation for Food Security (GIFS) A research-to-action challenge promoting advanced GeoAI research in three critical food systems problem spaces: enabling agri-food supply chain resilience, informing crop shifting, and increasing nitrogen use efficiency. Includes flagship and pilot projects with funding of up to $550K per flagship project, convened for researchers, innovators, and implementers working on food security and sustainable agriculture.
• Afghanistan PULSE Platform for Understanding Local Shocks and Emergencies - a real-time mapping system that tracks risks to food supply chains across Afghanistan. Enhanced with GeoAI to interpret community reports, associate information with specific locations, and verify against satellite and meteorological data. For humanitarian responders and partner organizations operating in environments where ground-level data is incomplete.
• Predicting Food System Instability A GeoAI capability to identify early signals of instability in food systems using satellite imagery embeddings and natural-language queries. Uses Al Jazirah embeddings from OlmoEarth and is being tested in Sudan, Ukraine, Syria, and Haiti. For humanitarian and food security analysts needing early warning of food system disruptions.
• Water-First Nitrogen Management GeoAI model development focused on a 'water first' approach to improve nitrogen application decisions by mapping plant-available soil water at sub-field scales using satellite imagery and machine learning. Combines multispectral and thermal imagery, radar data, evapotranspiration estimates, topography, and soil surveys with crop growth models (DSSAT) calibrated with farm yield data. For agricultural practitioners and researchers optimizing nitrogen use efficiency.
• fiboa Format Specification Field Boundary Observation Attribute (fiboa) format - a standardized schema developed to aggregate ground truth field boundary data from multiple countries into a common format for ML training datasets. For geospatial data producers, researchers, and organizations needing interoperable field boundary datasets across 24 countries.

Quantifiable outcome

• First globally consistent map of every agricultural field on Earth at 10m resolution
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers4 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 capability11 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 8 June 2026Co-convened the Scientific Roadmap for Advancing Agricultural Nitrous Oxide MMRV and Modeling, bringing together researchers from universities, federal agencies, industry, and nonprofit sector.
• Microsoft AI for Good LabcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 23 April 2026Co-investor and technical partner in Fields of the World initiative. Microsoft AI for Good Lab contributed researcher Caleb Robinson and significant cloud compute infrastructure to enable global-scale inference for the agricultural field boundary dataset.
• Source Cooperative (Radiant Earth)coreTechnology or Integration · 23 April 2026Partner providing open repository for hosting cloud-native geospatial datasets. Source Cooperative directly enables Taylor Geospatial's mission to democratize access to GeoAI and deliver digital public goods at scale.
• WherobotscoreTechnology or Integration · 23 April 2026Built the RasterFlow platform, generated global mosaics, and ran model inference efficiently at planetary scale to produce final data products for Fields of the World.
• Hannah Kerner Lab at Arizona State UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 23 April 2026Academic research team contributing core scientific innovation to the model and architecture for Fields of the World global field boundary detection.
• Nathan Jacobs Lab at Washington University in St. LouiscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 23 April 2026Academic research team contributing core scientific innovation to the model and architecture for Fields of the World global field boundary detection.
• Lyndon Estes at Clark UniversitysupportingStrategic or Co-development Partner · 23 April 2026Provided additional research contributions to the Fields of the World initiative and global field boundary mapping effort.
• NASA HarvestcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 23 April 2026NASA Harvest is applying the Fields of the World dataset for agricultural monitoring and Earth observation research, serving as a key user and advocate for the open data.
• UN Food and Agriculture OrganizationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 23 April 2026FAO is applying the Fields of the World dataset for global food security monitoring and agricultural analysis.
• United Nations World Food ProgrammecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLeading the Afghanistan PULSE flagship project under GIFS, enhancing the real-time mapping system that tracks risks to food supply chains using GeoAI and satellite data.
• REACH InitiativecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnering with WFP on the Afghanistan PULSE platform to build next-generation early warning capabilities for humanitarian response.
• FEWS NETsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerFamine Early Warning Systems Network partnering on food system instability prediction project led by Arizona State University, University of Maryland, and Washington University in St. Louis.
• NASA Goddard Space Flight CentersupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in the Predicting Food System Instability project, contributing expertise in Earth observation and satellite data analysis.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Descartes Labs: Geospatial analytics company applying ML to satellite imagery for agriculture, supply chain, and sustainability use cases. Directly comparable GeoAI-for-agriculture focus and customer overlap in agribusiness and government.
• Indigo Ag: Agricultural technology company applying data science, ML, and satellite imagery to improve farming outcomes and sustainability. Comparable agricultural analytics focus and overlap in carbon and nitrogen use efficiency use cases relevant to GIFS.
• Farmers Edge: Precision agriculture company providing field-centric digital agronomy and satellite-based crop monitoring. Comparable agricultural GeoAI value proposition to growers and agribusiness.
• Radiant Earth: Nonprofit technology organization that curates open geospatial training data (including the Source Cooperative platform) for machine learning. Directly comparable mission of democratizing Earth observation data and a close operational partner via Source Cooperative.
• Development Seed: Geospatial AI services firm building open-source tools and ML models for Earth observation at global scale. Directly comparable technology stack and target users (humanitarian, agriculture, climate) and a co-organizer of SatSummit.
• NASA Harvest: NASA's global food security and agriculture consortium that uses satellite data and ML to support agricultural monitoring. Direct peer in agricultural GeoAI and an active partner/adopter of Taylor Geospatial datasets.

Broad incumbents

• Planet Labs: Public commercial Earth observation company operating the largest commercial satellite constellation and offering analytics including agricultural field boundary detection. Overlapping capability in agricultural field boundaries but as part of a much broader commercial EO portfolio.
• Microsoft AI for Good Lab: Microsoft's philanthropic AI research arm working on Earth observation and food security ML. Both funder/partner and an adjacent player building GeoAI models with similar mission framing.
• Climate Corporation (Bayer): Digital agriculture platform owned by Bayer that uses satellite imagery and ML for field-level analytics. Overlapping capability in agricultural GeoAI at much greater commercial scale.
• Google DeepMind (Earth observation work): Builds AI foundation models for Earth observation (e.g., AlphaEarth Foundations) and food security applications. Adjacent GeoAI capability that could compete with or complement Taylor Geospatial's open ecosystem.

Market position

Strengths3 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/TaylorGeoSTL

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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

M&A1 record

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about Taylor Geospatial