A successful ESA-backed Demonstration Project by German company VIDA has attracted €3 million of investment from Cusp Capital. VIDA’s solution, originally developed under ESA’s Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) programme, uses satellite-enabled software to accelerate sustainable infrastructure investment and impact management. The funding will enable VIDA to scale its operations, expand its product offering and build its presence in key markets worldwide.

VIDA’s platform provides critical climate risk information, enabling investors to understand how their infrastructure is impacted by the environment, and in turn to assess impact. Across Asia and Africa, for example, the company’s software is currently used by governments, international funders and alternative energy players to map out clean electrification infrastructure. Stakeholders can assess the status of any location, social and environmental risk factors, as well as potential demand.  

The software fuses multiple data layers, including geospatial data, into a map-based format that enables easy monitoring and reporting of critical environmental markers. It replaces traditional data sources, which are typically stored in a variety of formats and are often both difficult to access and unfit for purpose. 

Tobias Engelmeier, co-founder and CEO of VIDA, said "We are delighted to partner with Cusp Capital in our mission to bring climate-informed decision-making to infrastructure investment and management worldwide. This funding empowers us to further accelerate our growth, reach new markets and build out our unique climate risk and impact assessment tools."

"Cusp Capital is thrilled to be part of VIDA's growth story," said Dr Carolin Althoff, Investor and Head of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) at Cusp Capital. "We work with entrepreneurs who understand that ESG is a business opportunity in building the next generation of tools and services, leading to a positive impact on our planet and society. Seeing exactly that in the VIDA team, we look forward to partnering with them as they rethink operations for infrastructure investors."

Commenting on the news of the investment, Beatrice Barresi, ESA Technical Officer, said “It has been a privilege to work with VIDA and watch them grow to be market leaders in their field. This latest investment will enable them to expand these vital services to reach more communities around the world.”

Founded in 2018 with support from ESA, VIDA is already well-placed in more than 20 countries across Africa, Europe and Asia, and is on track to generate €3 million in 2023 alone. With major companies, investment firms and government bodies using its software, the company aims to become the global standard for climate-aware infrastructure planning. It supports investors to build distributed, flexible infrastructure that reduces the risks of climate change, such as dams to counter floods, power (cooling) to handle heatwaves, or stronger buildings to resist storms. VIDA is also focused on mitigating against climate change through the replacement of fossil-based infrastructure with green infrastructure in developed countries and to meet new needs in emerging markets. 

 

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged ambulance services like never before. First RESPonse was created to help professionals respond to emergency calls more rapidly through enhanced technology. With support by ESA Space Solutions, the system developed in a Demonstration Project streamlined communication and information sharing throughout the chain of response and reduced call-to-hospital times for patients by up to 17%. 

During the worst months of the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency call centres experienced extremely high rates of urgent medical calls. Coordination of the ambulance response was challenging and made more complex by the changing landscape of medical resources; hospitals were filling up, and temporary emergency facilities were opening.

The First RESPonse (First Rapid Emergency System against Pandemic) project launched in Italy in July 2020, with the aim to improve coordination of the entire process of a medical emergency request: from a patient’s distress call to the point of hospitalisation. 

The project brought together two major players in European emergency service software and telecommunications: GINA Software and Beta 80. Forming a new consortium, the companies achieved complete integration of their products and – supported by ESA – incorporated space technology for enhanced geolocation accuracy and communication coverage. 

Digital links for a faster chain

First RESPonse digitally connects each link in the emergency chain of response. It begins with an app on a citizen’s smartphone, through which they can call for help, see when help has been dispatched and when it is due to arrive. Ambulance dispatchers in the call centre have a constant digital connection to their crews via a workstation. They can keep them updated on the scene and patient’s condition, and the status of the nearest hospital facilities. First responders have a tablet through which they receive up-to-date information about the patient, automatic SatNav to their location and can video consult with a doctor from the field. They can also scan the patient’s ID card so that receiving hospitals know who is coming in, as well as seeing when they are expected. 

The system was piloted by selected ambulance services in Italy and the Czech Republic and used in almost 9,000 incidents. In this pilot project, First RESPonse accelerated the pre-hospital chain by between 12 and 17%. 

Arnaud Runge, Medical Engineer at ESA said: “In a medical emergency every minute counts. Cutting the time it takes an ambulance to reach a critically ill patient, and to get them to hospital, can make a life-saving difference. We’re proud to have enhanced First RESPonse with space technology.”

From pandemic to systemic

Following the successful completion of the pilot, First RESPonse is being promoted to emergency services more widely in Italy and the Czech Republic – where GINA and Beta 80 have most of their customers – and beyond.

The system has been gaining interest at the major international events for emergency services: the European Emergency Number Association Conference and INTERSCHUTZ 2022. 

Martin Ingr from GINA said: “The products and services that were created during the project are aimed to remain sustainable also after the pandemic is overcome. Our goal is that the problems solved through the First RESPonse project become part of the standard operation procedure. The system can be used again against this or other pandemics, during the response to disasters such as earthquakes, as well as improving daily operations of emergency services.”

Supported by an ESA Kick-Start activity, LiveEO has developed a satellite data-based service to monitor ground deformation. The project will support environmental and operational safety across the supply chain for the oil and gas industry, from production to distribution and storage.

Oil and gas supplies are dependent on multiple factors, including the stability of the ground wherever oil or gas is being stored or transported. In March 2021, LiveEO started assessment and development of an end-to-end solution for monitoring ground deformation for the entire value chain of the industry, based on interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) satellite data combined with artificial intelligence (AI). The aim was to help the industry ensure safety across its assets by providing an early warning system that could inform maintenance or safety actions.  

Providing actionable insights

Founded in 2017, LiveEO has a background in using Earth observation (EO) data to provide a range of services to operators of large-scale infrastructure, such as railways, electricity grids and pipelines. It combines data analysis with risk analysis to create actionable insights on aspects such as vegetation management, detection of construction activity and ground deformation monitoring —  all of which present challenges for reasons that include climate change and environmental factors.

With this Kick-Start activity, co-funded by ESA, LiveEO’s team used its experience in servicing pipeline customers to explore the feasibility of a holistic, end-to-end solution for ground deformation monitoring. The investigation included risk models that quantify the risk to specific assets resulting from ground deformation and how the insights could be delivered to customers and integrated into their processes to create automatic triggers. 

The LiveEO team analysed the opportunities through surveys of more than 50 companies and countries, including existing clients in the pipeline industry, as well as researching the broader landscape. Initial data came from Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, which will be enriched by higher resolution StripMap and SpotLight SAR imagery from Capella Space or ICEYE satellites to investigate any anomalies that have been detected.

Sven Przywarra, the Co-CEO and co-founder of LiveEO said: “The Kick-Start activity enabled LiveEO to validate a business case in a unique setting, and also created an environment that allowed our business development team to take the right steps from a business idea to product development. The combination of guidance, support and clear goal setting from ESA was greatly appreciated, because it gave us the entrepreneurial freedom necessary for the exploration of new ideas paired with acquiring a depth of knowledge similar to a classic research project."

The increasing need for ground deformation insights

The requirement for such insights results from an increasing number of oil wells, pipelines, storage facilities and other oil and gas related infrastructure exceeding their original lifespans. This is leading to more complex maintenance for operators and increased risks that impact both the industry itself and the surrounding environment and communities. One of the major sources of risk is ground deformation due to industrial operations or natural seismic activity. Where infrastructure and assets span large areas, these risks can be very difficult to measure and dangerous trends can go undetected. 

Traditional monitoring methods, such as land surveying or sensors and drones, can only give a partial picture. Satellites enable monitoring of deformation trends across entire countries with weekly update intervals —  something that would be prohibitively expensive or even impossible via other means. InSAR data delivers deformation values at individual pixel levels, allowing the identification of trends over long periods of time; this can be supplemented with historical data.

The company is currently developing the AI side of the project, with the aim of completing development by the end of 2022. The plan is then to undertake a demonstration project and have a marketable subscription service ready by the end of the following year.