Hydrosat

Hydrosat is a Washington, DC- and Luxembourg-based company that builds thermal infrared imaging satellites and turns the resulting data into analytics for governments, agribusinesses, research institutions and defense and intelligence organizations. Its products combine thermal infrared satellite imagery, proprietary algorithms and AI/machine-learning models to measure land surface temperature, detect crop water stress, track drought and vegetation stress, and monitor industrial and environmental change day and night.

The company operates two thermal infrared satellites, VanZyl-1 (VZ-1) and VanZyl-2 (VZ-2), in sun-synchronous orbit at roughly 510 km altitude, with seven VNIR and two LWIR spectral bands, 30 m VNIR and 70 m LWIR ground sample distance, a 70 km field of view and overpass times around 10:30 a.m. or 1:30 p.m. A next-generation constellation, Osiris, is designed to capture visible, near-infrared and long-wave infrared imagery with 25 m thermal and coincident 10 m visible data at swaths of up to 340 km. Hydrosat also sells payload solutions, offering in-house-designed EO/IR imaging payloads, integration and test support, on-orbit calibration and validation, and an automated image processing pipeline deployable in AWS.

On the applications side, Hydrosat delivers field- and regional-level water and crop management products, including the IrriWatch solution acquired in 2023, covering field irrigation planning, water productivity and water compliance monitoring, delivered through a web portal, a mobile application and a STAC-compliant API with an accompanying Discovery Platform and documentation site. Stated use cases span agriculture, wildfire, urban heat, energy and industrial facility monitoring, aquaculture, and defense and intelligence.

Founding story

Hydrosat was founded in 2017; Pieter Fossel is CEO and co-founder.

Business model

Hydrosat is vertically integrated, designing and building its own thermal infrared payloads and satellites and monetizing the resulting imagery through data products, analytics subscriptions and platform/API access, as well as through payload and sovereign satellite mission solutions sold to government customers.

Revenue sources indicated include imagery and analytics delivered via web portal, mobile app and API; government contracts (for example NOAA and an NRO imagery agreement); multi-year monitoring contracts such as Madera County; sovereign satellite capability agreements; and payload and mission support services.

Traction

The company reports service in more than 60 countries, daily collection capacity above 10 million square kilometers, and solutions used daily on millions of hectares. Two thermal infrared satellites were launched in 2024 and 2025. Contracts and agreements include NOAA, an NRO commercial electro-optical imagery agreement, a multi-year water monitoring contract in Madera County, and sovereign thermal satellite agreements with Kazakhstan Gharysh Sapary. Twelve open positions were listed across Luxembourg, the United States and the Netherlands.

Latest developments

In January 2026 Hydrosat closed $60 million in Series B funding led by Hartree Partners, Subutai Capital Partners and Space 4 Earth, with new investor Truffle Capital and follow-on from existing backers, to scale its constellation, expand Water & Crop management products and deepen presence in Central Asia, MENA, India and Latin America. In September 2026 a $10 million Series B extension from Suma Capital was announced. Other 2026 developments include a multi-year water monitoring contract in Madera County (March), agreements with Kazakhstan Gharysh Sapary on satellite water intelligence (June) and sovereign thermal satellite capabilities for Central Asia (September), and the unveiling of the Osiris constellation (September).