stratospheric-imaging
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Near Space Labs
Near Space Labs is a Brooklyn-based earth-imaging company that flies small autonomous robots called Swift into the stratosphere on helium balloons to capture 7-centimeter-resolution imagery of the ground below. Founded in 2017, it delivers frequent, analysis-ready aerial data to property and casualty insurers, governments, utilities and environmental groups at a fraction of the cost of traditional planes or satellites, positioning balloon-borne imaging as a scalable, low-emission alternative for monitoring cities, infrastructure and disasters.
Rema Matevosyan
Rema (Hripsime) Matevosyan is the co-founder and CEO of Near Space Labs, a Brooklyn-based company that flies helium-lifted robotic aircraft called Swift into the stratosphere to photograph the Earth at 7-centimeter resolution. Born and educated in Armenia, trained as an applied mathematician in Moscow, she left a PhD program two weeks into an entrepreneurship class to build what she calls her own little space program. In April 2025 the company closed a $20M Series B led by Bold Capital Partners, bringing total funding above $40M, with insurance carriers as anchor customers using the imagery to model wildfire and hurricane damage.