The Next Big Thing You Missed: The Space Race Will Breed a New Wave of Data Startups

Ilya Golubovich. I2BF Global Ventures

When it comes to opportunities for innovation in the space industry, the sky is not the limit. The limit is the universe.

Billions of dollars are now being spent on the burgeoning commercial space industry. From SpaceX rockets to Virgin Galactic’s space hotels to Planet Labs’ micro satellites, this technology promises to let astronauts, businesses, and space tourists alike gather more information from and about space than ever before.

But according to Ilya Golubovich, a partner at I2BF Global Ventures which invests heavily in the space industry, there may be an unintended consequence to all this discovery. “There’s going to be so much data,” he says, “and current instruments for managing this data—storing, processing, and visualizing to make it useful to the end customer—such tools are at a very incipient stage.” To put it in industry parlance: Houston, we’ve got a data problem.

But for Golubovich, this is as much a crisis as it is an opportunity. It gives traditional startups—that is, startups that aren’t run by billionaires as SpaceX and Virgin Galactic are—a chance to have a stake in this emerging and potentially lucrative field. “There are only a handful of companies capable of handling it now,” he says, “but I think we’ll see a lot more.”

Satellites, Satellites Everywhere

To get a sense of just how problematic all this data could become, consider the fact that in 2013, an estimated 93 micro satellites were launched globally, but by 2020, that number is expected to grow to between 2,000 and 2,750 satellites. These satellites will use the imagery they collect to make predictions on what’s going on down here in Earth.

Even some of the work being done here on Earth will have an impact. The Square Kilometre Array Telescope—the world’s largest radio telescope, which is currently being developed—is expected to produce 100 times the global internet traffic as it monitors the sky in unprecedented detail. “And that’s just one project,” Golubovich says.

There are applications in almost every industry—from precision agriculture to commodities trading—but only if the systems are in place to process and visualize that data in a way the end customer can understand. That’s where the startups come in.

The Space Cleanup Market

Golubovich has good reason for hyping this potential market. He already has some investments in it. One company, Cloudeo, connects geo-data providers like satellite companies with software developers, who can make something of all that data, and hosts those apps in a library for businesses that could benefit from geo data. “Think of it as an app store for all things satellite imaging,” Golubovich says.

Though he’s focused on data, Golubovich does see plenty of opportunity in other parts of the industry. For instance, he says all this interest in sending more technology into orbit will likely result in a “space cleanup” industry to get rid of underperforming or idle satellites. Meanwhile, I2BF has invested in other companies, like Planetary Resources, that plans on mining asteroids for new natural resources.

But it will take time for those industries to get off the ground, so to speak. When they do, he says, they’re going to need all the Earthly help they can get.