Let me take you back to 1995. Researchers, funded by the US military, were building and testing a “network of networks”. Linking remote computers. The justification for the work was distributing data across a group of connected computers, to avoid the risk of ‘single point failure’.
In 1995 few knew about the World Wide Web. But the Internet, as it soon came to be known, was about to transform the world, and create an incredible opportunity for the investment community.
Today, geospatial is in a similar place to the Internet in 1995.
Let me throw some buzz terms your way: IoT, IIoT, smart city, sensors, digital twin, geolocation. And many more.
How about some business activities: Understanding customer behaviour, taking action on hurricane and fire risk in real-time, predicting crop failure, coordinating activity across the supply chain, tracking the spread of COVID-19 and taking action to mitigate. Just a few examples.
Geospatial is at the heart of these terms and solutions. And yet geospatial remains poorly understood.
Fundamental to all our activities is place. And today we have both the data and algorithms (see artificial intelligence and machine learning) to solve many of today’s challenges centred on place. And that is geospatial.
Is confusion getting in the way .. ?
Geospatial is foundational to the digital revolution. As organizations (both private and public) look to improve insight, and take fast, well guided actions; many are turning to geospatial.
But much of the investment community remains oblivious to this new universe. Why?
Just like the early days of the Internet, geospatial remains confusing. We are in the midst of a worldwide explosion in companies providing geospatial business solutions. We have compiled a list of the Top 100 Geospatial innovators (contact me directly for more information). From that list you will see an incredible array of problems being tackled in a wide array of verticals: Retail & consumer behaviour, fire, waste management, climate change, agriculture, supply chain, transportation, construction, health, security, hazard/risk.
Who will be the investment winners ..
The investment winners will be those who can connect the dots. For both private equity funds and venture capital, looking to invest in the exploding geospatial field, success will be based on 3 key areas:
- Who you choose
- How they execute
- Short exit horizon
Shameless plug ..
We set up WhyofThere in part to help the investment community understand better the incredible opportunities offered by geospatial. We offer 4 services:
1) Finding new investment opportunities
2) Assessing Investment Targets
3) Investment Portfolio Review
4) Increasing Asset Value of Portfolio Companies for fast exit
You can find out more about how we can help at our investments web page.
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