A Look Back: Planet's Progress in 2014

2015 is shaping up to be a transformative twelve months for us here at Planet Labs. We just announced our first Series C close; our flock of Doves is primed to double in size; and we moved into our new SOMA HQ. Before we look too far ahead, let’s take a breather and revisit five of last year’s big milestones that helped us get here.

1. Major Launches & Deployments

An astronaut captured this photo of two of our Flock 1 satellites being deployed from the ISS

We’ve launched a grand total of 93 Doves in 2014. Check out this detailed breakdown:

2) The Image Gallery Goes Live

In August, we launched our gallery to showcase our high-cadence Dove imagery. It quickly became the most viewed page on our website. Take a look at some of our favorite gallery images so far:

Sabina Fire California, USA (July 23, 2014). One of our Doves captured an image of this blaze just ten minutes after it was reported. It was a meaningful early use case for our timely satellite data.

Dawesville Channel, Australia (December 22, 2014). A late-year favorite for its detail and beauty.

Três Marias Reservoir, Minas Gerais, Brazil (July 31, 2014). Evidence of one of the worst droughts in recent history seen on the shores of one Brazil’s largest reservoirs– another impactful use case for our unique, growing data set.

Remember: these images and others in the gallery are licensed under creative commons. Freely share, use, and remix these images to express yourself, develop useful tools and draw new insights.

3) First Public Customers

We worked hard this year to promote our mission of imaging the entire Earth every day.

In October, we struck a multi-year deal with Woolpert, the geospatial services leader. We also announced a partnership with Geoplex to integrate our up-to-date imagery of Australia and New Zealand into crucial disaster detection and cross-industry monitoring tools. We can’t wait to highlight these customer use cases (and others) in 2015.

4) Growth & Key Hires

We capped off a stellar 2014 with a robust recruiting push, hiring top-tier talent from all disciplines– tripling our headcount in just twelve months. In November, we welcomed Tom Barton as our new Chief Operating Officer. Tom boasts over 25 years of experience managing and advising hardware and software companies. We’re confident he’ll help establish us as a leader in the Earth imaging space.

5) Big Press

Our CEO, Will Marshall, gave a TED talk in Vancouver this year. His talk was our most viewed piece of social content, surpassing one million views in just two months.

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Some highlights from New York Magazine’s Planet Labs profile:

“I cannot emphasize this point enough: Planet Labs makes actual things, things you can hold in your hand, things that go to outer space. For a guy who’s used to being pitched on beta-version apps, crowd-funding projects, and incomprehensible cloud platforms, the idea of a start-up making something as tangible as a satellite makes me deliriously giddy.”

“But it was refreshing to see, in the course of an hour-long visit with a little satellite company, that the higher, better ambitions of Silicon Valley are still alive and well.”

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Our CTO, Chris Boshuizen, talks through our Dove flocks with NASA:

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Last year’s growth trajectory was steep, but we’re aiming even higher in 2015. Learn more about our product offerings here. If you’d like to join our mission, apply here.