Inmarsat, Atlantic Bridge Capital and Civic Connect dig deep for IoT in global mining sector

Mobile satellite communications provider Inmarsat has forged a partnership with equity firm Atlantic Bridge and cloud software developer Civic Connect to form Insight Terra, a company designed to respond to the risk management and environmental monitoring needs of mining organisations worldwide.

Insight Terra will set out to provide an integrated end-to-end data management solution, built around three core elements, for the mining sector.

These encompass an edge-based data ingestion, validation and aggregation from sensors, historians and other data sources; Inmarsat’s global, all-weather L-band satellite connectivity to ensure real-time data transfer from the mine site to the cloud-based Insight Platform; and the Insight Platform to curate and validate data to make it available in real-time on a customisable dashboard.

While monitoring mine tailings is a key focus initially, the solution will be used to support environmental and infrastructure monitoring use cases more broadly in mining, including water management and pit wall stability.

Outside of the mining sector, use cases for geo-hazard monitoring and risk management in adjacent sectors include freshwater reservoirs, hydroelectric dams, landslide monitoring and other critical infrastructure monitoring.

The new company builds on the Tailings Insight integrated internet of things (IoT) solution developed by Inmarsat and Civic Connect, which uses IoT sensors and cloud-based analytics to monitor the integrity of mine tailings facilities in real-time, and the cloud-based Insight Platform – the technology that underpins the solution – resulting from a two-year collaboration between Inmarsat and Civic Connect.

To kick-start the company’s growth strategy, Insight Terra has secured $5.45m in Series A funding, led by Atlantic Bridge, with additional participation from Globalive and JLR Star. Civic Connect will be the majority owner of Insight Terra initially, while Inmarsat will retain an equity stake in Insight Terra and a seat on the new company’s board of directors.

Gregory Curtin, founder of Civic Connect, will be joining Insight Terra as its president, partnering with CEO Alastair Bovim to chart the new company’s strategic direction.

Commenting on the ambition for the new company, Bovim said: “We are delighted to have established…an independent and agile company that will provide our customers in the mining sector with a proven enterprise-grade risk management solution that works anywhere.

“The formation of Insight Terra as a specialised platform-as-a-service provider by Inmarsat, along with funding from Atlantic Bridge, will enable us to help mining companies monitor their tailings facilities and manage associated risks more effectively.

“This will be key as the sector faces increasing pressure to comply with the new global industry standard for tailings management, and to meet environmental, social and governance requirements from investors and regulators. Beyond tailings monitoring, we will be developing additional innovative environmental monitoring offerings to support use cases that drive actionable insight.”

Curtin added: “The entire Civic Connect team is excited to be a key part in the launch of Insight Terra, and to be leading the global market for environmental and infrastructure risk management at such a critical time, given the exigencies of climate change, the pandemic and global digital transformation.

“Insight Terra has an incredibly important role to play in protecting people from the environment, and the environment from people, during these challenging times.”