Seeing What Matters: Why We're Building in the Stratosphere
When an insurance company needs to assess crop damage across multiple districts, or a city wants to map every property for tax collection, or a highway project needs to track construction progress over 200 kilometers, they face an impossible choice. Satellites offer coverage but lack resolution and flexibility. Drones provide detail but can't scale. Aircraft are prohibitively expensive for routine monitoring. Organizations end up paying too much for data that arrives too late or compromising on quality they actually need.
The Stratosphere Changes Everything
The stratosphere, that layer between 20 and 30 kilometers above Earth—sits in a remarkable sweet spot. High enough to cover hundreds of square kilometers in a single flight. Low enough to capture 10-centimeter resolution imagery. Above weather systems, so clouds don't matter. Below orbital altitudes, so costs stay manageable. By flying balloons at these altitudes with high-resolution cameras, we can deliver satellite-scale coverage at drone-level detail, at a fraction of what either solution costs today.
India's Moment
India has a unique opportunity here. The country's booming insurance sector needs affordable crop monitoring at scale. Infrastructure projects worth trillions of rupees need better oversight. A hundred smart cities need baseline imagery that doesn't cost tens of crores. Forest departments need to detect encroachment before it becomes irreversible. The demand is massive, but global imaging providers price for developed markets, not emerging ones. Building in India means we can operate at costs that make sense for Indian organizations. A highway corridor survey that might cost ₹50 per square kilometer with traditional methods? We're targeting under ₹10. That's not just cheaper—it's the difference between monitoring once a year and monitoring every quarter. Between rough estimates and actionable data. Between knowing and guessing.
What We're Building Toward
We're six months from platform launch, and the path is clear. We've designed the balloon systems. We're finalizing payload integration. We're talking with insurers, infrastructure companies, and government agencies about pilot programs. The next few months will be about proving we can deliver. About showing an insurance company that our ₹5/km² imagery can replace their ₹50/km² satellite budget. About demonstrating to a municipal corporation that we can map their entire city in a week for less than a single drone survey. About giving organizations the data they need to make better decisions, faster. This isn't about replacing satellites or drones—they each have their place. This is about filling the gap that's always existed between them. High resolution over large areas, delivered quickly, priced reasonably. That's what the stratosphere makes possible. That's what we're building.
