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WindBorne Systems Lands US Air Force Weather-Data Contract Worth Up to $49 Million
The U.S. Air Force will buy atmospheric data from WindBorne Systems' fleet of about 700 autonomous weather balloons under an agreement capped at $49 million, with $1.7 million in orders placed so far.
The Redwood City, California-based company, founded in 2015, runs roughly 700 autonomous balloons worldwide that collect atmospheric sensor readings. WindBorne sells that data to customers and also feeds it into its own deep-learning forecasting model, positioning it among the first organizations to route empirical observations directly into a deep-learning weather model.
The Air Force arrangement works as an on-demand purchasing vehicle rather than a lump-sum award. The service pays only when it needs data and can place orders for specific regions at specific times, making the $49 million figure a ceiling rather than a guaranteed payout. Orders to date total $1.7 million, and company executives expect additional orders to follow.
Co-founder and CTO Andrey Sushko described the agreement as a mechanism to support continued growth of the balloon constellation, alongside research and development work aimed at improving the hardware and performance of the balloons.
The deal is the largest single contract WindBorne has participated in. The company has built a track record with U.S. government agencies, including the National Weather Service as well as the Air Force and Navy.
In August, chief executive John Dean said the company had raised a $37 million Series B round to continue scaling the business.