Kongsberg Satellite Services has acquired majority stake in Norwegian startup VAKE

KSAT, Kongsberg Satellite Services, a provider of satellite ground networks and Earth Observation services has acquired a majority stake of 70 percent of VAKE, a Norwegian space–startup that delivers maritime domain awareness by using satellite data combined with machine learning.

Since 2018, VAKE has been working on applying Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence (ML/AI) to satellite images to detect and analyse the behaviour of vessels, including ships that choose to hide their position, identity, and activity at sea. They have developed strong Machine Learning (ML) capabilities for several maritime applications which started off by leveraging open data from the European Space Agency and the Copernicus program, and now also offer integration of commercial satellite data into their products and services. KSAT has followed the development of VAKE since the company was founded and sees great opportunities in joining forces with VAKE to solve the future challenges in maritime domain awareness, offshore asset protection and shipping activity tracking.