Aerospace & Defense Satellite Imagery Services sector
Strategic acquirers, private equity (buyout funds and growth funds) firms, and valuation benchmarks for Aerospace & Defense Satellite Imagery Services
1.1 - About Aerospace & Defense Satellite Imagery Services sector
Companies in the Aerospace & Defense Satellite Imagery Services category acquire, process, and deliver high-resolution earth observation data to government, defense, and maritime customers. They provide taskable optical, radar, and infrared imagery, along with secure delivery and analysis tools that turn pixels into geospatial intelligence. The value proposition centers on timely situational awareness, persistent monitoring, and mission-ready products that support surveillance, planning, and operational decision-making.
Offerings typically span taskable constellation access with priority collection, high-resolution optical and multispectral imagery, synthetic aperture radar for all-weather coverage, thermal/infrared products, orthorectification and tiling services, change detection and pattern-of-life analytics, vessel and object detection models, and secure delivery via APIs, cloud platforms, or air-gapped environments. Many providers add ground-station integration, SLAs for revisit and latency, archive search, area-of-interest monitoring, and on-demand mosaics, DEMs, and 3D terrain products.
Primary customers include defense and intelligence agencies, maritime security organizations, and aerospace primes. Outcomes delivered include faster targeting and mission planning, enhanced maritime domain awareness with reliable vessel detection, improved border and infrastructure monitoring, and reduced operational risk through timely, verified geospatial intelligence. These companies also help buyers meet compliance and data sovereignty needs by offering secure workflows, audited delivery, and controlled-access archives.
2. Buyers in the Aerospace & Defense Satellite Imagery Services sector
2.1 Top strategic acquirers of Aerospace & Defense Satellite Imagery Services companies
Planet
- Description: Provider of a cloud-native Earth-observation data and analytics platform that delivers daily global satellite imagery, lets users process and analyze data via serverless tools, and offers self-service purchasing of monitoring packages, public imagery processing and high-resolution tasking services.
- Key Products:
- Daily Satellite Imagery: Provides near-real-time, multispectral images of Earth’s landmass every day, enabling users to monitor environmental and economic change at global scale
- Single Order Tasking: Web-based service that lets customers order high-resolution satellite imagery for specific ad-hoc projects, completing the entire request and delivery process 100% online
- PlanetScope Data: Near-daily, eight-band satellite dataset that, when combined with AI, supplies actionable agricultural insights such as precise crop identification and health assessment
- AI-enabled Defense & Intelligence Solutions: Analytics layer applying artificial intelligence to Planet’s imagery to support defense customers, reflected in multi-year contracts with European and U.S. agencies for situational awareness.
- Company type: Publicly traded
- Employees: ●●●●●
- Enterprise value: $●●●●m
- Cash & ST investments: $●●●●m
- EV/Revenue (NTM): ●●.●x
- EV/EBITDA (NTM): ●●.●x
2.2 - Strategic buyer groups for Aerospace & Defense Satellite Imagery Services sector
M&A buyer group 1: NewSpace
Thales
- Type: N/A
- Employees: ●●●●●
- Description: Provider of advanced technology, equipment and service solutions across aerospace, space, transportation, defence and security markets, supplying sophisticated onboard aviation systems, civil and military satellites, rail signalling and train control solutions, electronic warfare sensors, missile systems, secure mobile communications, encryption technology and command-and-control platforms.
- Key Products:
- FlytCare: Turnkey maintenance service supporting airline IFEC systems with customized spares, repairs, logistics and performance guarantees, ensuring seamless operations and high seat dispatch rates
- Network Operations Center (NOC): 24/7 Network Operations Center monitors aircraft connectivity, uses LiveConnect for real-time issue detection, coordinates with satellite providers and engineers to rapidly restore committed service levels
- Cybersecurity Operations Center (CSOC): Centralized Cybersecurity Operations Center delivers threat intelligence, dashboards, vulnerability management, log archiving and automated response, ensuring continuous detection, prevention and rapid mitigation of cyber incidents
- Aircraft Technical Services (ATS): Aircraft Technical Services deliver on-wing line maintenance, system checks, cabin sweeps and performance planning to maximize ground time usage and minimize passenger disruption.
Buyer group 2: ████████ ████████
●● companiesBuyer group 3: ████████ ████████
●● companies3. Investors and private equity firms in Aerospace & Defense Satellite Imagery Services sector
3.1 - Buyout funds in the Aerospace & Defense Satellite Imagery Services sector
2.2 - Strategic buyer groups for Aerospace & Defense Satellite Imagery Services sector
4 - Top valuation comps for Aerospace & Defense Satellite Imagery Services companies
4.2 - Public trading comparable groups for Aerospace & Defense Satellite Imagery Services sector
Valuation benchmark group 1: Space Infrastructure and Services Companies
Airbus Group
- Enterprise value: $●●●m
- Market Cap: $●●●m
- EV/Revenue: ●.●x
- EV/EBITDA: ●●.●x
- Description: Provider of aerospace products, services, and solutions for the commercial aircraft, helicopter, defense, and space sectors, offering innovative designs and technology for a wide range of aviation operations.
- Key Products:
- Commercial Aircraft: Passenger and cargo aircraft for global airlines
- Helicopters: Civil and military helicopters for various applications
- Defense Products: Military aircraft, satellites, and defense systems
- Space Products: Launch vehicles and space exploration systems
- Maintenance and Upgrades: Comprehensive services for aircraft maintenance, training, and technology upgrades.