Mobile satellite communications company, Inmarsat has joined with global growth equity firm Atlantic Bridge and US-based “born in the cloud” software developer Civic Connect to launch Insight Terra, an entity established to respond to the risk management and environmental monitoring needs of mining organisations worldwide.

The new entity builds on Tailings Insight – an integrated solution for monitoring mine tailings facilities in real time, and the cloud-based Insight Platform – the technology that underpins the solution, resulting from Inmarsat’s two-year collaboration with Civic Connect.

To drive its growth strategy, Insight Terra has secured $5.45 million in Series A funding, led by Atlantic Bridge, with additional participation from Globalive and JLR Star. Civic Connect will be the majority owner of Insight Terra initially, while Inmarsat will retain an equity stake in Insight Terra and a seat on the new company’s board of directors.

Insight Terra provides a fully integrated end-to-end data management solution for the mining sector, built around three core elements, the companies say:

• Edge-based data ingestion, validation and aggregation from sensors, historians and other data sources;
• Inmarsat’s global, all-weather L-band satellite connectivity, to ensure ultra-reliable real-time data transfer from the mine site to the cloud-based Insight Platform; and
• The Insight Platform that curates and validates the data to make it available in real-time on a visually compelling customisable dashboard.

While monitoring mine tailings is a key focus initially, the solution will be used to support a multitude of environmental and infrastructure monitoring use cases more broadly in mining, including water management and pit wall stability, the companies said.

Insight Terra CEO, Alastair Bovim, said: “We are delighted to have established Insight Terra as an independent and agile company that will provide our customers in the mining sector with a proven enterprise-grade risk management solution that works anywhere. The formation of Insight Terra as a specialised Platform-as-a-Service provider by Inmarsat, along with funding from Atlantic Bridge, will enable us to help mining companies monitor their tailings facilities and manage associated risks more effectively. This will be key as the sector faces increasing pressure to comply with the new global industry standard for tailings management, and to meet environmental, social and governance requirements from investors and regulators.”

Gregory Curtin, Founder of Civic Connect, will be joining Insight Terra as its President, partnering with Bovim to chart the new company’s strategic direction.

Curtin said: “The entire Civic Connect team is excited to be a key part in the launch of Insight Terra, and to be leading the global market for environmental and infrastructure risk management at such a critical time given the exigencies of climate change, the pandemic and global digital transformation. Insight Terra has an incredibly important role to play in protecting people from the environment, and the environment from people, during these challenging times.”

Mike Carter, President, Inmarsat Enterprise, said: “Inmarsat’s L-band connectivity is uniquely suited to enabling environmental monitoring solutions where reliable, real-time data transfer is paramount. We are proud to be supporting Insight Terra’s growth with both our connectivity and strategic investment, and will work closely with the team to ensure mining organisations across the globe can operate more efficiently, safely and sustainably.”

Kevin Dillon, Managing Partner at Atlantic Bridge, said: “Insight Terra is uniquely positioned to deliver environmental risk management solutions to its customers with differentiated technology and a world class, very experienced management team. We are thrilled to be co-leading the investment round and strongly believe that Insight Terra will deliver great value to its customers and provide a true ESG solution to the industries it serves.”