constellr GmbH

ConstellR is a German deep-tech start-up from Freiburg that operates at the interface of Earth Observation and agriculture. A spin-off of the Fraunhofer, Europe’s largest organization for applied science, ConstellR is dedicated to supporting global food security in times of climate change. Based on a proprietary space infrastructure with unique sensing capabilites, ConstellR offers precise and plot-level water monitoring for the agricultural sector worldwide.

What do we do?

Constellr’s mission is to support global food security in a time of climate change by enabling efficient water use for every field on the planet. In short, we enable more crop per drop.
Spun out from Fraunhofer, Europe’s largest research organization for applied science, constellr has developed a solution which can precisely measure crop water needs from space: a constellation of proprietary microsatellites with unique sensing capability and global coverage.

We are not selling satellites, however, but use high-quality data from our constellation to provide affordable global crop health monitoring services to the smart farming sector.

What problem do we solve?

Water is the single central driver for nearly all of humankind's food production. As a result, today, more than 70% of all freshwater is used in irrigation. As water use and water need is currently not quantifiable reliably in an economically scalable way, more than 60% of this water is wasted. With an increasing population nearing 10 billion by 2050, water usage will increase by more than 30% by the end of the decade, potentially leading to a global agricultural breakdown.
The inability to efficiently manage water poses a major challenge across the entire agricultural value chain: from the livelihood of farmers via the supply chain management of food producers to national and international food security.

How do we solve this problem?

We offer a cloud-based data platform providing crop water stress information for stakeholders in the agricultural sector. That’s water need for every field on the globe, every single day. It is globally scalable: a single system to cover the whole planet. It is affordable for use in developing countries. It is reliable as it is based on precise physical measurements and proven analytical methods. And it is timely: detecting crop water stress before damage occurs to enable earlier and more effective mitigation.

How does our product or service work?

Since current satellites are not fit for purpose, constellr is building a proprietary satellite constellation to measure crop water stress. The core IP and unique competitive advantage is a quantum leap in payload cost efficiency, leveraging our patent-pending virtual calibration technology. Employing thermally stabilized optical systems, cryo-cooled sensors, and a cooperative approach with existing space infrastructure, this allows for measurement accuracy comparable to large satellites on a microsatellite platform. And we have verified the technical concept with a demonstrator payload on the International Space Station launched in February 2022.

Our data is downlinked, stored, processed, fused, and distributed to our customers via our data fusion platform HeatR. The platform is designed to deliver data and services directly to analytics companies and smart farming providers.