Jerome O’Connell, Proveye. Image: Nick Bradshaw/Fotonic
The UCD spin-out uses satellite and drone image processing and AI technologies to monitor land use for biodiversity and food production.
Proveye, a Dublin start-up that develops image-based analytics technology for agriculture and the environment, has been awarded a contract worth €900,000 with the European Space Agency (ESA).
The contract, which falls under the ESA’s ARTES Business Applications and Space Solutions Programme, will enable the University College Dublin spin-out to further develop its platform, which combines satellite and drone image processing and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to measure and monitor land use, carbon sequestration and biodiversity in the world’s grasslands.
The collaboration marks the second time the NovaUCD-based remote-sensing company has collaborated with the ESA: back in 2022, Proveye secured €225,000 in funding from the agency to develop its grassland management platform.
The former SiliconRepublic.com Start-up of the Week was founded by Jerome O’Connell alongside Prof Nick Holden. The duo have developed tech that removes noise from image data, making it easier to understand and derive insights.
According to the Rangelands Atlas, 54pc of the planet’s land surface is covered by grass, shrubs or sparse, hardy vegetation which stores more than 20pc of the Earth’s soil carbon. These grassy areas also play an invaluable role when it comes to worldwide food production.
O’Connell, the CEO of Proveye, said that the new contract will aid the company in delivering “nature-based solutions that drive climate resilience and sustainable food production”.
Challenges facing Earth’s grasslands
O’Connell said that grassland ecosystems are under “significant pressure” from climate change and intensive agriculture.
“Our platform empowers farmers to manage grasslands more efficiently, give actionable insights to project owners and provide investors and corporates with empirical evidence on the impact of their nature capital investments,” he said.
“Frequent and accurate metrics are critical to the widespread adoption of nature-based solutions and given the lack of significant financial commitments being secured at COP29 highlights even more the pressing need for platforms such as ours to give investors the assurance of impact on their investments.”
In August, Proveye was one of just 15 companies globally to be selected for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) clean energy accelerator programme. As part of the Generative AI Energy Lab, Proveye will collaborate with AWS enterprise customers to test and deploy its solution at scale.
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