Planet Is Going Public Via SPAC: What Investors Should Know About This Earth Data And Analytics Company

Earth data and analytics company Planet announced a SPAC deal Wednesday.

What Happened: Planet is going public in a SPAC merger with dMY Technology Group Inc IV DMYQ valuing the company at an equity value of $2.8 billion.

A PIPE of $200 million included investments from BlackRock, Koch Strategic Platforms, TIME Ventures and Alphabet Inc GOOGGOOGL, an existing Planet investor.

Public DMYQ shareholders will own 12.5% of the company after the merger. The deal is expected to close later this year with the new company trading as ticker "PL" on the NYSE.

About Planet: With a network of 200 satellites, Planet is the largest Earth-imaging satellite company. Planet produces 25 terabytes of data per day.

Planet counts more than 600 customers who pay subscription revenue to the company. The company’s customers come from 65 countries.

Segments served by the company include agriculture, defense and intelligence, civil, mapping, forestry, energy, finance and insurance.

“We have this huge dataset — an image of the entire Earth landmass every day — which we serve up via a Bloomberg-like terminal for Earth data, making it simple to consume and expanding reach to potentially millions of users across dozens of verticals,” Planet CEO and co-founder Will Marshall said.

Planet’s data and analytics can be sold multiple times to multiple customers, according to the deal announcement.

dMY Technology CEO Niccolo de Masi praised the company’s “scalable data-as-a-service subscription business” with data becoming the “fuel that powers the global economy.”

“Planet is on the path to becoming one of the most consequential companies in a generation,” de Masi said.

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Growth Ahead: Planet intends to use the proceeds from the transaction to expand its operations and services. Plans call for the company to expand in existing markets and into new markets.

Planet is years ahead of the competition with the largest fleet of satellites and experience launching 462 satellites in its lifetime, according to the investor presentation.

Planet is targeting two multi-trillion-dollar economic shifts. The company sees a $100 trillion market of digital transformation by the year 2025 and a $53 trillion market for sustainability transformation by the year 2025.

Financials: Planet had revenue of $96 million in fiscal 2020 and $113 million in fiscal 2021. Revenue has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 27% from fiscal 2016 to fiscal 2021.

The company is projecting revenue to grow 44% annually from fiscal 2021 to fiscal 2026. The company estimates fiscal 2022 revenue of $130 million with 65% of the total already fully committed.

Revenue is split fairly even by several of the largest customer segments. Civil, agriculture, defense and mapping make up 24%, 23%, 22% and 17% respectively of fiscal 2021 revenue.

DMYQ Price Action: Shares of DMYQ are up 1.58% to $9.99 on Wednesday at publication.