Radar › Companies › Geographic Information Systems · British Columbia
Radar · Geographic Information Systems in British Columbia

Best Geographic Information Systems Companies in British Columbia, Canada

The 35 best Geographic Information Systems companies in British Columbia, Canada in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: Spexi.

35companies tracked
$50Mdisclosed funding
0unicorns
11have raised

Ranked: Best Geographic Information Systems companies in British Columbia

#CompanyDisclosed fundingLast roundStageFounderFoundedTech stackPatents & IP focusRecent signals
1Spexi
Network providing on-demand, high-resolution aerial imagery through a drone pilot network
$17M21 mo agoSeries ABill Lakeland
CEO
2003WebflowSalesforceAmazon Web Services+24——
2Ideon
Provider of muography platform that uses imaging technique to detect mineral deposits
$17M48 mo agoSeries AGary Agnew
Co-Founder & CEO
2020WordPress Block EditorWordPressApple iCloud Mail+28——
3UrtheCast
Provides satellite imagery services
$9M79 mo agoPublic—2009—91 patents
High-resolution synthetic aperture radar imaging and processing for Earth observation.
—
4Contigo
Provider of GPS-based location tracking systems
$5M231 mo agoAcquiredLindsay Ryerson
CEO
2002DebianApache HTTP ServerjQuery+14 patents
Real-time asset tracking and movement monitoring using IoT sensors
—
5Rx Networks
Provider of solutions for location tracking
$2M194 mo agoAcquired—2002WordPress Site EditorElementorWordPress+1997 patents
Precise GNSS orbit prediction, error mitigation, and crowd‑sourced positioning services
—
6Safe
Data Integration Platform
—32 mo agoLate Stage—1993WordPressApple iCloud MailGoogle Workspace+36—1 partnership
7GeoComply
Tech-enabled geolocation compliance solution for gambling
—43 mo agoSeedAnna Sainsbury
Founder & Chairman
2011WordPressApple iCloud MailGoogle Workspace+313 patents
Geolocation-based remote transaction fraud detection and assessment systems
—
8Alpha
Provider of satellite-based image processing solutions
—67 mo agoSeedScott Larson
Chief Executive Officer
2020———

Top 11 Geographic Information Systems companies in British Columbia

#1
Series A · Vancouver, British Columbia · founded 2003
$17Mraised
▾

Network providing on-demand, high-resolution aerial imagery through a drone pilot network. It offers standardized imagery products accessible through a world viewer, APIs, and ESRI-compatible tools. The network facilitates data requests, routing them to pilots for updated imagery. Industries use the imagery for infrastructure monitoring, emergency response, and urban innovation.

Funding rounds
  • Dec 2024Series A$11.5M
  • Mar 2024Seed$5.5M
Founders & team
Bill LakelandCEO
Investors
Blockchange, Protocol Labs, Dapper Labs, InDro Robotics, FJ Labs, Alliance DAO
Tech stack
Amazon CloudfrontAmazon S3Amazon Web ServicesCloudflareCloudflare Bot ManagementCore-Js
#2
Series A · Richmond, British Columbia · founded 2020 · 44 employees
$17Mraised
▾

Provider of muography platform that uses imaging technique to detect mineral deposits. The technology combines patented detectors, imaging systems, inversion technologies, and artificial intelligence to enable a view under the Earth's surface. It provides mining experts with geological insights, identifies, characterizes, and monitors mineral deposits between holes. It consists of proprietary hardware for data gathering, software, integrated imaging systems, and data analysis and interpretation.

LinkedIn Pulse recent public activity · Jul 2026
Audience: 10k LinkedIn followers — 11.0% of this cohort's audience
Activity: 1 awards announced in 12 mo
Funding rounds
  • Sep 2022Series A$16M
  • Jul 2020Seed$959.9K
Founders & team
Gary AgnewCo-Founder & CEODouglas SchoutenCo-Founder
Investors
Playground Global, UBC, Sprout Fund, WUTIF Capital
Tech stack
AosApple Icloud MailAzureAzure Front DoorCloudflareCloudflare Bot Management
#3
Public · Vancouver, British Columbia · founded 2009 · 10 employees
$9.2Mraised
▾

UrtheCast provides satellite imagery services. It offers various services including satellite imaging, data services, and analytics. It has a proprietary platform known as UrthePipeline that transforms satellite data into analytics-ready data. It provides analytics services for various industries including agriculture, commodities trading & logistics, and crop insurance & financial risk mitigation.

Funding rounds
  • Feb 2020Post IPO$1.6M
  • Sep 2019Post IPO$5M
  • Sep 2019Post IPO$2.2M
  • Sep 2019Conventional Debt$2.7M
Investors
Canadian Space Agency, Lunar-ventures.com, Skidmore Group, Herald Investment Management, SpaceFund
#4
Acquired · Burnaby, British Columbia · founded 2002 · 21 employees
$5Mraised
▾

Provider of GPS-based location tracking systems. It offers web-based software and a mobile application that enable users to track vehicles, assets, and persons. Its features include real-time tracking, live locations on maps, and notification alerts.

Funding rounds
  • Jun 2007Series B$3M
Founders & team
Lindsay RyersonCEO
Investors
BC Advantage Funds
Tech stack
Apache Http ServerGoogle Hosted LibrariesJqueryOpensslPhp
#5
Acquired · Vancouver, British Columbia · founded 2002 · 50 employees
$1.9Mraised
▾

Provider of solutions for location tracking. It provides users with location chips in any device that takes some time to detect the location with the help of satellite or wifi or cellular signals. It also provides a performance boost to these location chips thereby enabling faster and more accurate location detection and supporting indoor and outdoor location detection.

LinkedIn Pulse recent public activity · Jul 2026
Audience: 3k LinkedIn followers — 3.1% of this cohort's audience
Funding rounds
  • Jul 2010Series A$794.4K
  • Dec 2008Series A$1.1M
  • May 2007Series A$3.3M
Investors
BC Discovery Fund, VOXX International, TELUS Ventures, Discovery Capital, Esperante
Tech stack
Amazon Web ServicesButtonizerCdnjsCloudflareElementorEndurance Page Cache
#6
Late Stage · Surrey, British Columbia · founded 1993 · 205 employees
—raised
▾

Safe Software's FME, a data integration platform with built-in support for location data helps organizations create harmony between data and applications. Gives tools to connect applications, transform data and automate workflows - from a point-and-click interface. Integrates with 335+ data sources which include Salesforce , Application & Web Services (AutoDesk Autocad, Mapinfo, GoogleMaps etc), Databases (Postgres, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server etc) spanning Government , Oil & Gas, Telecommunication industries.

LinkedIn Pulse recent public activity · Jul 2026
Audience: 25k LinkedIn followers — 25.9% of this cohort's audience
Activity: 1 partnerships (incl. Axmann Geoinformation GmbH) announced in 12 mo
Funding rounds
  • Jan 2024PE—
Investors
JMI Management
Tech stack
AlgoliaAlpine.JsAmazon AlbAmazon CloudfrontAmazon Web ServicesApple Icloud Mail
#7
Seed · Vancouver, British Columbia · founded 2011 · 600 employees
—raised
▾

Tech-enabled geolocation compliance solution for gambling. The company claims to optimize risk rate through geolocation-based compliance. It offers various solutions like indoor location, solus browser, and more. The geolocation data are into areas such as multi-state KYC and digital ID verification, payment, fraud analytics, etc.

LinkedIn Pulse recent public activity · Jul 2026
Audience: 25k LinkedIn followers — 26.2% of this cohort's audience
Funding rounds
  • Jan 2023Seed—
  • Mar 2021Seed—
Founders & team
Anna SainsburyFounder & Chairman
Investors
Arctos Sports Partners, Norwest, Blackstone, Atairos, Marbruck Investments
Tech stack
6SenseAlpine.JsAmazon S3Amazon Web ServicesApple Icloud MailAtlassian Statuspage
#8
Seed · Vancouver, British Columbia · founded 2020 · 27 employees
—raised
▾

Provider of satellite-based image processing solutions. It offers a space-based dual-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite technology and a predictive analytics platform. It offers a cloud-based real-time onboard processing solution and has the capability to detect ground objects for processing data. It features AI-based object classification and latency surveillance capabilities.

Funding rounds
  • Feb 2021Seed—
Founders & team
Scott LarsonChief Executive Officer
Investors
Prime Movers Lab, Chenel Capital
#9
Seed · Coquitlam, British Columbia · founded 2015 · 3 employees
—raised
▾

Platoi Industries specializes in providing geospatial big-data analytics-based pipeline monitoring solutions. It uses analytics, remote sensing, and geospatial big data automating to detect, prioritize, and manage the external risks to the linear infrastructure such as pipelines. It allows users to identify & prioritize hotspots, integrate predictive insights, and provide actionable dashboards and real-time risk alerts. It provides these solutions to oil & gas and water & sewer sectors.

Funding rounds
  • Jul 2019Seed—
Founders & team
Gus NuweiriFounder & CEO
Investors
L-Spark
Tech stack
WordpressMysqlPhpOceanwpNinja FormsElementor
#10
Late Stage · Victoria, British Columbia · founded 1999 · 44 employees
—raised
▾

VertiGIS Studio is a software platform that offers beautiful, fast, and flexible applications for accomplishing more with Esri's ArcGIS. It combines 3D and 2D capabilities of Esri's latest JavaScript API to improve decision-making using dynamic, real-time data.

LinkedIn Pulse recent public activity · Jul 2026
Audience: 14k LinkedIn followers — 14.6% of this cohort's audience
Funding rounds
  • Oct 2017PE—
Founders & team
Andy BerryCEO
Investors
Battery Ventures
Tech stack
Amazon CloudfrontAmazon Web ServicesHstsIisMicrosoft 365Windows Server
#11
Deadpooled · Vancouver, British Columbia · founded 2011
—raised
▾

Placeling provides mapping platform to mark favorite or interesting places and share with others to guide them. It also enables users to follow other Placeling users to navigate places with ease. Currently Placeling is not active.

Funding rounds
  • Aug 2011Seed—
Founders & team
Ian MacKinnonCo-FounderLindsay WattCo-Founder
Investors
GrowLab

Funding & investor landscape

$50Mtotal disclosed funding
5companies funded
22disclosed rounds
0rounds last 90 days
Most active investors
BC Discovery Fund2 rounds
AI@Centech1 rounds
Accelerate Okanagan1 rounds
Alliance DAO1 rounds
Arctos Sports Partners1 rounds
Atairos1 rounds
BC Acceleration Network1 rounds
BC Advantage Funds1 rounds
Battery Ventures1 rounds
Blackstone1 rounds

Notable founders

Bill Lakeland
CEO · Spexi
Gary Agnew
Co-Founder & CEO · Ideon
Douglas Schouten
Co-Founder · Ideon
Lindsay Ryerson
CEO · Contigo
Anna Sainsbury
Founder & Chairman · GeoComply
Scott Larson
Chief Executive Officer · Alpha
Gus Nuweiri
Founder & CEO · Platoi
Andy Berry
CEO · VertiGIS Studio
Ian MacKinnon
Co-Founder · Placeling
Lindsay Watt
Co-Founder · Placeling
Prism market signals · Canada · country-scoped Prism corpus, 8,216,935 docs

Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage

Share of Geographic Information Systems coverage by sub-theme.

Regulatory-risk over time rising

Funding & growth over time

funding rising · growth rising

RESEARCH SIGNALS · Canada

How research on Earth Observation is moving in Canada

A read on the academic research around Earth Observation — which themes are gaining ground, the institutions and researchers driving them, and how the tone is shifting. Based on 1,115 Canada-affiliated papers.

research sentiment over time
200820172026
enthusiastic · positive · guarded tone
Tone is overwhelmingly optimistic and intensifying — the enthusiastic (strongly-positive) share moved 44% → 57% across 2008–2026.
top research entities
  • University of British Columbia74
  • University of Waterloo66
  • Natural Resources Canada65
  • Environment and Climate Change Canada61
  • McGill University56
leading researchers
Saeid Homayouni · Masoud Mahdianpari · Michael A. Wulder · William Perrie · Biao Zhang · Weimin Huang · Fariba Mohammadimanesh · Joanne C. White
▲ Breakthroughs348 · 31%
▲ 27%→32% share
▲1.2× share momentum0 median citations89% since 2021mostly methods-led
Breakthroughs are rising (27%→32% of field), led by Hyperspectral imaging.
rising sub-themes (early→recent)
  • Hyperspectral imaging7→77
  • Remote sensing10→70
  • Synthetic aperture radar12→67
  • Satellite1→53
  • Satellite imagery1→43
Newly emergingFeature (linguistics) 0→17 · Radar 0→15 · Multispectral image 0→13
Landmark Spectral–Spatial Residual Network for Hyperspectral Image Classification: A 3-D Deep Learning Framework · 1,819 cites
◆ Advancements462 · 41%
▼ 53%→40% share
▼0.8× share momentum0 median citations86% since 2021mostly empirical
Advancements are cooling (53%→40% of field), led by Hyperspectral imaging.
rising sub-themes (early→recent)
  • Hyperspectral imaging6→101
  • Remote sensing32→108
  • Satellite7→64
  • Synthetic aperture radar25→77
  • Satellite imagery3→51
Newly emergingArctic 0→19 · Support vector machine 0→11 · Climate change 0→10
Landmark Landsat-8: Science and product vision for terrestrial global change research · 2,477 cites
▼ Concerns96 · 9%
▼ 11%→8% share
▼0.7× share momentum0 median citations84% since 2021mostly empirical
Concerns are cooling (11%→8% of field), led by Satellite.
rising sub-themes (early→recent)
  • Satellite1→14
  • Remote sensing5→16
  • Hyperspectral imaging2→11
  • Vegetation (pathology)1→8
  • Normalized Difference Vegetation Index1→6
Landmark Recent Advances of Hyperspectral Imaging Technology and Applications in Agriculture · 1,103 cites
RESEARCH HOTSPOTS · Canada

Where earth observation is researched across Canada

Location clusters by institution affiliation — each city's volume, stance tone, and a quick read on its hot topic, what's advancing, the opening opportunity, and the main concern.

Vancouver99 · +0.41
Hot · Satellite imageryAdvancing · LidarOpportunity · SatelliteConcern · Geology
Montreal79 · +0.43
Hot · ArcticAdvancing · RadarOpportunity · Synthetic aperture radar
Waterloo/Hamilton72 · +0.56
Hot · Synthetic aperture radarAdvancing · Radar imagingOpportunity · Radar
Edmonton/Calgary70 · +0.57
Hot · Synthetic aperture radarAdvancing · Computer visionOpportunity · SatelliteConcern · Ecosystem
Toronto61 · +0.55
Hot · Hyperspectral imagingAdvancing · Computer visionOpportunity · Satellite imagery
Ottawa/Kingston45 · +0.31
Hot · GlacierAdvancing · PolarimetryOpportunity · Satellite
PATENT SIGNAL · Canada

Who's filing earth observation patents in Canada

Canada earth observation patent filing is cooling — 123 filings from 30 assignees (2016–2025), led by Urthecast, MDA Systems, KING Abdulaziz CITY Of Science A; annual filings 14→7.

123 filings30 assigneespeak 18/yr2016–2025
filing momentum (YoY 2016–2025)
top patent filers
  • Urthecast78
  • MDA Systems18
  • KING Abdulaziz CITY Of Science A9
  • KING Abdullah CITY Of Science An9
  • Spacealpha Insights8
  • Minesense TECH8
  • Terramera7
  • Husky OIL Operations7

Common questions

How many Geographic Information Systems companies are there in British Columbia, Canada?
Radar tracks 35 indexable Geographic Information Systems companies headquartered in British Columbia, Canada that meet our profile-completeness bar.
What is the total funding raised by Geographic Information Systems companies in British Columbia, Canada?
The Geographic Information Systems companies in British Columbia, Canada on this list have raised a combined $50M in disclosed equity funding across 5 funded companies.
Which is the highest-funded Geographic Information Systems company in British Columbia, Canada?
Spexi is the highest-funded Geographic Information Systems company in British Columbia, Canada, with $17M in disclosed equity funding.
How many Geographic Information Systems companies in British Columbia, Canada are funded?
5 of the 35 Geographic Information Systems companies in British Columbia, Canada on this list have disclosed at least one equity funding round.
How many Geographic Information Systems unicorns are there in British Columbia, Canada?
None of the Geographic Information Systems companies in British Columbia, Canada on this list currently has a disclosed valuation of $1B or more.
Who are the top investors in British Columbia, Canada Geographic Information Systems companies?
The most active investors in British Columbia, Canada Geographic Information Systems companies on this list include BC Discovery Fund, AI@Centech, Accelerate Okanagan, Alliance DAO, Arctos Sports Partners.
Rohit KhannaTrends & Stories

Rohit lives in the feed. He covers what's moving right now — the funding rounds, launches and shifts breaking across the trade press — and ties them back to where the sector is heading.

Coming soon