ITHACA, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Ursa Space Systems Inc. (“Ursa”), a Space 3.0 analytics-as-a-service company, announced it closed a $7 million Series A equity financing from experienced financial, security, and strategic investors. The financing was led by Paladin Capital Group and included participation from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), RRE Ventures, S&P Global, and other strategic investors. Ursa was formed by leaders in the satellite and software security fields with the vision to unlock the potential of data and insights derived from radar satellite imaging.

Ursa provides transparency to complex markets, enabling global operators in financial services, energy, industrial, and government sectors to make more informed decisions. Ursa released the world’s first comprehensive weekly China oil inventory report in May, added the Caribbean and MENA regions in September, and plans to have global coverage in early 2018.

“Ursa’s weekly measurements enable users to recalibrate their expectations about the current and future condition of oil supply & demand,” said Colin Fenton, Blacklight Research. “Blacklight has been able to anticipate oil market changes so accurately in 2017 as a direct result of utilizing Ursa’s data.”

Ursa provides its rapidly growing customer base with the analytics solutions needed to make the connection between space technology and global markets. To accomplish this, Ursa utilizes its experience with a unique form of satellite imagery (Synthetic Aperture Radar, or SAR), other cutting-edge technologies, and external information layers. With the new funding, Ursa will continue to expand its customer base for global oil & gas industry information products and continue development of its proprietary machine vision and machine learning algorithms to bring to market additional economic indicators.

“The globalization of business and government operations has resulted in interconnected supply chains,” said Adam Maher, co-founder and CEO of Ursa. “However, there is a lack of transparency regarding critical parts of these supply chains, which causes uncertainty and risk for our customers. We aim to expand our product offerings for existing customers, and engage with new organizations that desire timely insights into external assets and events that directly affect them. Ursa is excited to have the support of this group of successful venture firms who have demonstrated experience in bringing new technologies to disrupt established markets.”

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Ursa and a strong group of financial and strategic investors to support accelerating the company’s growth,” said Christopher Steed, Managing Director at Paladin Capital Group, who will be joining Ursa’s board of directors.

“Ursa’s vision of a global economic intelligence platform powered by the 24/7, all-weather reliability of SAR imaging will provide major enterprises in critical infrastructure verticals and government clients with greater situational awareness and new insights for gaining competitive advantage, managing risks, and operating with confidence,” said Mourad Yesayan, Principal at Paladin Capital Group. “With its unique combination of technology and subject matter expertise, we believe Ursa is in an excellent position to unlock the compelling value of this new category of accurate, actionable intelligence for its customers.”

“Adam and his team have a deep understanding of both SAR imaging and the application of computer vision technology,” said Will Porteous, a General Partner and COO at RRE Ventures. “This allows them to make valuable primary observations about the global economic and geopolitical environment in near real-time, all while capitalizing on legacy SAR assets. They are building an important business in the new satellite imaging value chain and we are proud to be their partner.”

More can be found at SpaceNews here: http://spacenews.com/ursa-space-systems-raises-7m-to-turn-satellite-imagery-into-business-intelligence/