SPACE INDEX COMPANIES INSIGHTS SECTORS PRODUCTS NEWS BLOG ANSWERS RESEARCH ABOUT FOR COMPANIES BUILD / 2026.06.04
Descartes Labs logo Descartes Labs Builds geospatial data analytics platforms that process satellite imagery at scale for commodity forecasting, resource exploration, and defense intelligence vs Loft Orbital Operates a satellite-as-a-service platform that integrates, deploys, and operates customer payloads and AI applications on standardized LEO spacecraft Loft Orbital logo
HEAD-TO-HEAD1 shared sector
Descartes Labs Loft Orbital
Founded 2014 2017
Headquarters Santa Fe, New Mexico San Francisco, California
Type private private
Status operating operating
Employees 16 256
Total funding $58M $326.2M
Latest round Corporate Series C
Sectors Geospatial Intelligence & Analytics, Space Software & Mission Tools Satellite Manufacturing, Earth Observation & Remote Sensing, Space Software & Mission Tools
Products listed 5 5
Federal contracts
Launches
Leaders listed Mark Johnson, Mike Warren Pierre-Damien Vaujour, Alex Greenberg, Pieter van Duijn
News mentions 0 1
SHARED SECTORS
FREQUENTLY ASKED

How do Descartes Labs and Loft Orbital compare?

Both companies work in Space Software & Mission Tools. Descartes Labs was founded in 2014 and Loft Orbital in 2017.

Which is larger, Descartes Labs or Loft Orbital?

Loft Orbital reports the larger workforce, with 256 employees versus 16.

Numbers refresh on every render against the live Space Index database. Federal contract data from USAspending.gov; launches from LaunchLibrary2.