Delivers Record Quarterly Revenue of $61.1 Million, up 14% Year-over-Year
Expands GAAP Gross Margin to 53% and Non-GAAP Gross Margin to 58%
Launched 36 SuperDove Satellites and First Tanager Hyperspectral Satellite
SAN FRANCISCO — (BUSINESS WIRE) — September 5, 2024 — Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL) (“Planet” or the “Company”), a leading provider of daily data and insights about Earth, today announced financial results for the period ended July 31, 2024.
“During the second quarter, we saw continued strength with government customers, especially in the Defense & Intelligence sector where revenue grew over 30% year-over-year and we saw continued demand for our broad area monitoring solution paired with AI,” said Will Marshall, Planet’s Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson. “We restructured the business towards an industry-aligned operating model and improved overall operational efficiency across the Company. We’re pleased with the gross margin expansion and progress towards our profitability objectives that we saw during the quarter, as well as the launch last month of 36 SuperDoves and Planet’s first hyperspectral satellite.”
Ashley Johnson, Planet’s President and Chief Financial Officer, added, “Our results for the second quarter demonstrate continued progress towards our target of achieving Adjusted EBITDA profitability in Q4 of this fiscal year - an important milestone on our journey to building a high margin, sustainable, cash flow generating business. Our balance sheet remains strong with approximately $249 million of cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments as of the end of the quarter, and we continue to have no debt.”
Second Quarter of Fiscal 2025 Financial and Key Metric Highlights:
- Second quarter revenue increased 14% year-over-year to a record $61.1 million.
- Percent of Recurring Annual Contract Value (ACV) for the second quarter was 96%.
- End of Period (EoP) Customer Count increased 7% year-over-year to 1,012 customers.
- Second quarter gross margin was 53%, compared to 49% in the second quarter of fiscal year 2024. Second quarter Non-GAAP Gross Margin was 58%, compared to 52% in the second quarter of fiscal year 2024.
- Second quarter net loss was ($38.7) million, compared to ($38.0) million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2024. Of the net loss in the second quarter of fiscal 2025, ($10.5) million was related to non-recurring charges in connection with the Company’s headcount reduction during the quarter. Second quarter Adjusted EBITDA loss was ($4.4) million, compared to a ($14.5) million loss in the second quarter of fiscal year 2024.
- Ended the quarter with $249 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.
Recent Business Highlights:
Growing Customer and Partner Relationships
- NATO: Planet won an introductory contract with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Communications & Information Agency for the Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space program. Under the contract, NATO will have access to Planet’s broad area monitoring and high resolution tasking solutions to evaluate and perform detailed tracking and analysis of foreign military activities, monitor infrastructure, and fill intelligence gaps.
- International Defense Customer: Planet closed a seven-figure deal with an international defense customer, which includes an expansion of high resolution tasking imagery and a pilot for PlanetScope data enhanced with AI capabilities from partner SynMax for maritime domain awareness.
- Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain: Planet and the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain announced that the Kingdom is using Planet data, enhanced by partner Aetosky’s AI capabilities, to support smart city management and urban planning initiatives across the country. The Kingdom shared that thus far this has led to a significant increase in effectiveness of building permit validation activities.
- International Government Agency: Planet won a seven-figure expansion with an International Government Agency to provide high resolution SkySat data.
- BASF Digital Farming GmbH: Planet expanded its contract with long-time customer and global agricultural leader BASF, adding Planet’s Field Boundary solution to support their xarvio® Digital Farming Solutions platform. Xarvio is a digital agriculture application that provides farmers and consultants with timely agronomic advice, serving more than 100,000 customers in more than seven countries.
- American Crystal Sugar Company: Planet announced a renewal and expansion with American Crystal Sugar, led by Planet partner SatAgro. SatAgro, a precision agriculture company, will use Planet data to provide American Crystal Sugar with advanced sugar beet monitoring in the northern United States, including solutions such as harvest progression, yield prediction, and other insights to inform crop management decisions.
New Technologies and Products
- Recent Launch: On August 16, 2024, Planet’s first hyperspectral satellite, Tanager-1, was launched into orbit onboard a SpaceX launch vehicle, along with 36 Planet SuperDove satellites. Planet has contacted Tanager-1 and the satellite is now in the commissioning process. Tanager-1 is made possible by the Carbon Mapper Coalition, a philanthropically-funded effort focused on methane and CO2 super emission detection. All 36 SuperDoves have been contacted as well, and the first satellite to achieve first light did so in a record three days. Planet’s SuperDove constellation remains the largest Earth imaging fleet in history and the basis for Planet’s broad area monitoring solution.
- NVIDIA Jetson: During the quarter, Planet announced that its upcoming Pelican-2 satellite is designed to incorporate next-generation communication technology and NVIDIA’s Jetson platform. With these advanced technologies, Planet plans to design workflows that can significantly shorten the timeline to deliver actionable insights to customers. The Pelican-2 satellite is expected to provide improvements in image quality, spectral bands, spatial resolution, and imaging capacity relative to its SkySat predecessors.
Impact and ESG
- Disaster Response: As part of an ongoing partnership with Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, Planet provides imagery of emergent disasters for use by rescue and aid operations, researchers, and media organizations. Most recently, Planet partnered with Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab and humanitarian aid organizations to support a rapid disaster response and building damage assessment to cover the impact of Hurricane Beryl on Grenada. Beryl struck in late June to early July, causing dozens of deaths and billions of dollars of damage according to current estimates. It is notable for being the earliest-forming Category 5 Atlantic hurricane on record.
- Amazon Conservation: Mapping the Andean Amazon Project released the first in a series of reports on forest carbon across the Amazon. The researchers leveraged Planet’s deep data archive and Forest Carbon Diligence product to estimate the total aboveground forest carbon in the Amazon biome and understand how much has been lost or gained over the past 10 years. This research affirms that the Amazon remains a critical net carbon sink and can be used to analyze which areas have a higher carbon density, which could aid policy makers in allocating conservation resources. The data can also be used as verification for carbon markets and their customers, as operating high quality carbon markets requires effective carbon sequestration measurement and validation processes. Planet continues to have an active Education & Research program across earth systems science fields, driving both valuable research and use case validation.
Third Quarter Financial Outlook
For the third quarter of fiscal year 2025, ending October 31, 2024, Planet expects revenue to be in the range of approximately $61 million to $64 million. Non-GAAP Gross Margin is expected to be in the range of approximately 59% to 61%. Adjusted EBITDA loss is expected to be in the range of approximately ($5) million and ($2) million for the quarter. Capital Expenditures are expected to be in the range of approximately $13 million and $16 million for the quarter.