Real-time geospatial intelligence provider BlackSky Technology (NYSE: BKSY) announced yesterday a 91% year-over-year increase in first-quarter revenue and a 63% YoY increase in imagery and software revenue.
“This was … our largest growth rate in nine quarters, or $6.6 million more revenue than Q1 a year ago,” Chief Financial Officer Johan Broekhuysen said during yesterday’s earnings call. Imagery and software analytical services revenue grew to $7.4 million, driven primarily by new and existing government contracts.
BlackSky also saw engineering and systems integration revenue expand to $4.1 million, a 31% YoY increase from Q1 2021, when it was just under $1.3 million due to increases in the percentage completion of certain satellite contracts, Broekhuysen said during the call.
BlackSky did also report an adjusted EBITDA loss of $9.5 million for Q1 2022 compared to a loss of $6.2 million in Q1 2021, which Broekhuysen attributes to investments towards the company’s expansion.
Current events have had a positive influence on BlackSky’s financial outlook.
“The Russian-Ukrainian war has accelerated intelligence use cases of geospatial (GIS) data, and [Blacksky] software is increasingly used by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and international governments. This should position [Blacksky] well for the [approximately] $300 [million] EOCL [Electro-Optical Commercial Layer] contract,” said Josh Sullivan, managing director and senior equity analyst at The Benchmark Company.
“It was a good quarter for BlackSky … the AEBITDA loss of $.95 million was [approximately] 14% better than the consensus forecast of $11 million,” Chris Quilty, founder and partner at Quilty Analytics, said in a note yesterday.
Despite the loss in adjusted EBITDA, Broekhuysen said full-year revenue for 2022 will be $58 million to $62 million, representing YoY growth of 76%. “We expect capital expenditures for 2022 to be between $52 million and $56 million, as previously guided. Assuming the middle of the CapEx spend range, this would represent a 15% reduction in spend from 2021, as we believe we have more than enough capacity from our 14-satellite constellation to support increased customer demand for the next couple of years,” he said.
Last month, BlackSky expanded its constellation from 12 to 14 satellites via Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB), delivering “an average daily revisit rate of eight to ten times a day in most locations in the world,” according to the company’s website.
Quilty said that BlackSky’s satellites now provide “more than enough capacity and revisit performance to satisfy customer demand for the next couple of years.”
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