ExactEarth
exactEarth Ltd is a publicly traded data services company delivering real-time global location-based maritime vessel tracking information utilizing patented Satellite AIS detection technology.
exactEarth provides Satellite AIS data services to commercial markets as well as government customers in India, Canada, US, Australia and across Europe.
Founded in 2009, exactEarth is based in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. The company is publicly traded, with HISDESAT Servicios Estratégicos S.A. being the largest stakeholder.
History
In 2005, COM DEV first recognized that the AIS messages being transmitted by major ships could potentially be received from space. COM DEV validated its AIS detection capability through aircraft trials in 2007 and launched a nano-satellite in April, 2008.exactEarth commenced commercial operations in June 2009.
In September 2010, Hisdesat acquired a 27% equity interest in the Company for a cash investment of approximately $15 million, with COM DEV retaining a 73% equity interest.
On June 23, 2015, exactEarth filed a Preliminary Prospectus with Canadian Securities Administrators, announcing their intentions to launch an IPO. However, on November 5, 2015, exactEarth's largest shareholder, COM DEV, announced plans for an acquisition by Honeywell with exactEarth spinning out into its own publicly traded company. exactEarth's prospectus was abandoned. COM DEV shareholders approved the acquisition on January 21, 2016, with each COM DEV shareholder receiving 0.1977 exactEarth stock for every COM DEV stock held. Final court approval of the acquisition came on January 25, 2016.
On February 9, 2016, exactEarth became a publicly traded company, trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol of XCT.
Satellites
As of October 2015, exactEarth operates a satellite constellation consisting of 9 satellites.On June 8, 2015, exactEarth announced a partnership with Harris Corporation to build 58 AIS detecting payloads to be launched on board the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation. It is expected that this constellation will provide global average revisit times and customer data latency of less than one minute.
On January 14, 2017, the first of the Iridium NEXT constellation was launched.
| Name | Satellite Catalog Number | Launch date | Launch vehicle | Constructor | Notes |
| CANX 6 | Retired, used for R&D | ||||
| ExactView-1 | Surrey Satellite Technology Limited | ||||
| Resourcesat-2 | |||||
| AprizeSat-6 | |||||
| AprizeSat-7 | |||||
| AprizeSat-8 | |||||
| AprizeSat-9 | |||||
| AprizeSat-10 | |||||
| ExactView-9 | |||||
| M3MSat | |||||
| Paz |
Projects
exactEarth Satellite AIS data was used in security efforts at the 2010 Olympics and Paralympics.exactEarth Satellite AIS data was used in the ship emission modelling project of the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
exactEarth Satellite AIS data aids ScanEx RDC in identifying illegal shipping within marine protected natural areas.