QuantCube Technology is a fintech company that provides high quality financial performance indicators to its clients.

Founded in 2013 by two entrepreneurs with strong expertise in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data, the company counts today in its portfolio of clients financial institutions such as Moody’s, the World Bank, Banque de France, Ardian, and Union Bancaire Privée (UBP).

The challenge

Financial forecasting is the process by which companies think about and prepare for the future. Forecasting involves assessing historical and current data concerning macroeconomics, environmental, social and governance factors.

While plenty of official economic data exists, these are often published with a lag of three or four months and for some areas of the world such data is difficult to access. As an example, up-to-date information on urban growth or maritime traffic, which can be linked to economic growth, is not available for many geographic areas, and it needs to be retrieved from sources other than official reports.

The satellite solution

Copernicus data are used by QuantCube to collect real-time information on four wide sectors of activity that are crucial to economic growth.

Agriculture: Sentinel-2 images, as well as meteorological data, are used to calculate real-time estimates of the crop yield per region and country, allowing for better tracking of agricultural activities.

Pollution: Sentinel-5p satellite images allow QuantCube to estimate the level of pollution per region and per country, focusing on the industrialised areas. Assessing the level of pollution (and in particular of NO2 emissions), allows for the tracking of industrial production.

Urban growth: Sentinel-2 images are used to measure and monitor urbanised surfaces and their yearly evolution. This helps QuantCube to track how cities change over time.

Water stress: Sentinel-2 satellite images allow for the montoring of water sources. Monitoring the fluctuation of water surfaces enables QuantCube to foresee droughts, which have a noticeable impact on water-intensive economic sectors.

To obtain the best possible accuracy, QuantCube Technology couples information extracted from satellite imagery with other data sources, such as job offers, sentiment data from social media, or logistics flows data.

The results of the analyses are delivered in real-time via the QuantCube Macroeconomic Intelligence Platform. The platform offers users different levels of granularity, ranging from sector data to country-level macroeconomic indices.

The results

The use of Copernicus-based data adds a significant value-adding layer to QuantCube’s offer of macro smart data, providing  information on regions where official statistics and indicators are difficult to obtain or are made available with some delay. In addition, the satellite images also allow for the monitoring of changes in a specific region or country over time to detect unusual trends.

In 2021, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub and the Bank of Italy placed QuantCube among the finalists for the G20 green and sustainable financial challenge, which was launched during the Italian G20 presidency.

“As climate change is increasingly affecting economic growth, environmental parameters are becoming more and more important for financial predictions. Hence, the use of satellite data will continue to play a crucial role in enabling companies to produce reliable financial and macroeconomic forecasts”. Alice Froidevaux, Lead Data Scientist, QuantCube Technology

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DSE-Data Science Experts is a company created in 2020 and focused on building products and solutions based on Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Based in Grenoble, France, the company today employs 11 people. The team’s vision is to help insurance companies to better support the agriculture sector in times of natural disasters.

The challenge

According to the World Meteorological Organization’s Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes, the number of disasters related to a weather, climate or water hazard has increased by a factor of five between 1970 and 2019 globally. Agrıculture is among the sectors that are affected the most by climate-related disasters.

To establish mechanisms, and in particular insurance schemes, to support the recovery of agricultural activities affected by disasters, there is a growing need for data and information to foresee and assess such damages.

The satellite solution

AIperion is a system, developed by DSE, that estimates the damage affecting agricultural fields, identifies the boundaries of flooded and burned areas, and detects the extent, impact and duration of droughts based on extreme weather events or natural disasters.

The system is based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) applied to Earth observation images to identify and detect the boundaries of flooded and burned areas. It integrates meteorological data from the MSG mission (Meteosat Second Generation satellites) to detect the intensity and duration of extreme weather events.

AIPerion relies on data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions to calculate vegetation indices and estimate agricultural damage.

These analyses are combined to produce an assessment of the level of damage to the crops and of its causes. The results are provided to customers through a dashboard, in the form of maps and figures.

The results

By integrating Copernicus data into their software, DSE can provide precise information on the crops’ health and determine if the damage to crop reported by farmers is a consequence of natural disasters and not of fraud attempts.

Moreover, based on the information provided by DSE, insurance companies can determine the premium to be paid for crop losses caused by natural disasters.

Under the request of one insurance company, using this system DSE was able to map 80% of cultivated fields on the French territory to detect the growth status of vegetation. That was made possible thanks to the high temporal resolution of the Copernicus data and could not have been done by using in-situ surveying techniques.

Using free and open Copernicus data, DSE can provide its services at a much lower cost than the price that they would ask if they used other paying satellite data. As a result, after only one year of existence, the company can count some of the world’s biggest insurance companies among their customers.

In 2020, the AIPeiron system has been awarded the Copernicus Masters Prize for France.

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Piedmont is Italy’s second largest region, covering an area of about 25 000 km2, of which 43.3 % is mountainous (Piedmont is surrounded by the Alps on three sides). Piedmont Region manages the regional broadband development programme called WI-PIE.
Among the implementing bodies, CSI Piemonte is a public consortium that includes the Region of Piedmont, and whose services are entirely dedicated to the different departments of the regional administration. In particular, CSI Piemonte is in charge of Piedmont’s information systems and infrastructure.

The Challenge

The particularities of Piedmont’s landscape with its extensive mountainous area meant that, in 2004, broadband connectivity was available to 81 % of the population, over only 32 % of the territory. The region decided to take measures to bridge this long-term digital divide most efficiently and cost effectively, while maintaining a technologically neutral angle and ensuring no overlapping on the market.

The Satellite Solution

The regional programme “A wireless territory”, operational since 2004, has made use of the most modern satellite telecommunication systems and wireless technologies to offer broadband connectivity to local authorities and their associations, schools, mountain and hill communities.

The Results

43 local authorities and local authority associations applied for funding from the Region to implement satellite broadband, from the beginning of the “Wireless territory” programme (2004-2005), for a total value of €7 million. By 2009, 50% of public mountain huts along the Piedmont part of the Alpine Way, without previous access to broadband, were covered. While users showed some reticence to the technology in the first place, satellite broadband soon proved a good solution in the broadband mix, and a first-choice for secluded areas, like the mountain huts. The economic impact of broadband availability is considerable, since it often made the difference as to whether local SMEs in inaccessible areas stayed in business or not.
Following the aforementioned good results, the Region recently launched an initiative to allow people and businesses, living in those residual areas under served or not covered at all, to get a satellite broadband connection. As a matter of fact tender has been issued giving a grant for the purchase and installation of satellite ground equipment.

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Czech Blind United (SONS) is the national association of blind and partially sighted people in the Czech Republic. Its headquarters are located in Prague, while ~80 local branches are spread over the whole country. The member base counts almost 10, 000 heads and 100 employees manage its activities, from a specialised library and a dedicated shop to a navigation centre.

The current organisation was established in 1996 after the merger of two predecessors that had been carrying out activities for the past century.

The challenge

Taking the right tram, finding a zebra crossing, avoiding obstacles on the way are only some of the struggles that the blind and partially sighted face, when they are not being accompanied by a guide. SONS has made it a priority to eliminate barriers to their mobility and support their full access to public places. Some adaptations of the public infrastructure and its functionalities exist, such as acoustic traffic lights, or announcements of bus stops. But they are not always sufficient to enable the blind to navigate autonomously and with ease. SONS was looking for a system which could truly support its clients on the move. 

The satellite solution

Ten years ago, the association set up a Navigation Centre in its headquarters to guide the blind and visually impaired during their trips.

Before starting his or her journey, the user calls the navigation centre via a dedicated number. Thanks to the satellite navigation receiver embedded in smartphones (or via an external satnav tracking unit), the SONS operator can locate where the person is calling from. The caller then tells the operator where he or she wishes to go. The operator finds the best itinerary by taking into account various data sources such as maps of the city, detailed 3D plans of subway stations, photos, plans, public transport schedules etc. Where available, Google Street View helps the operator to better judge the local situation and for example guide the impaired person to the proper road side, the one equipped by a sidewalk. The operator then guides the impaired person by phone until he or she reaches his or her final destination. Thanks to satellite navigation, the operator can follow the caller for the entire time, thus making sure he or she is going the right way.

In 2016, SONS added a new feature to its navigation centre. Thanks to a mobile app providing high-resolution video calls with current position, the operator can now see the street for the caller in real-time.

For longer journeys by train, SONS clients can also ask to be called before their stop. The operator can locate the person and call him/her e.g. five kilometres ahead of the destination.

The results

Thanks to the Navigation Centre, SONS clients are much more autonomous. They are satisfied with the quality of the service, and the association receives positive feedback. In the future, SONS is counting on the European satellite navigation system Galileo to provide an even more accurate location signal. Indeed, sometimes the height of the buildings misleads the satellite signal, which indicates an improper position to the operators. In addition, SONS is looking for better underlying data, such as precise and up-to-date coordinates of road constructions, to be able to guide its members even better.

Thanks to the Navigation Centre the visually impaired people are more autonomous on their journeys, and if they get lost, the Centre is able to help them. Zdeněk Bajtl, SONS.

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Pierre Leblanc manages an independent sandwich shop in Paris since August 2011. The shop is located near a university campus of over 30,000 students. Indeed, 80% of the shop clients are students.

The challenge

Managing unsold fresh products is a frequent problem for Mr. Leblanc since sandwiches and pastries have a limited shelf life. Before turning to technology, Mr. Leblanc had already tried to contact some associations to distribute his unsold products, but could not because of logistic and legal constraints (food waste management by shops and restaurants is highly regulated in France).

The satellite solution

Since October 2014, Mr. Leblanc uses OptiMiam, an app that connects shopkeepers who need to sell fresh food before the expiration date and customers looking for good deals.

The OptiMiam solution consists of two apps: one for the shopkeeper and one for the consumers.

The shopkeeper subscribed to the service at a preferential launch price (€100 for the first six months). After installing the application, he now uploads various deals on products about to expire. The discount on these products must be at least 25% for them to be listed on the app.

The customers’ app, free of charge, relies on the smartphones’ satnav system to alert potential clients of the deal when they are near the shop, via a push notification. The client can then add the products they want to buy to the shopping cart, and then pick them up in the shop. Clients pay directly at the cash desk, like for regular purchases.

The result

Since implementing the service Mr. Leblanc has reduced food waste. Furthermore, the shop attracts more clients than before, proving the app to be an efficient marketing tool in addition to helping him manage stocks and save money.  

Four months after its launch by Optimiam, a French start-up launched by two students, the app has been downloaded almost 13,000 times and is used by around 10,000 clients and 20 Parisian partner shops. 

“Thanks to OptiMiam, one can eat smart while protecting the planet and his wallet!”Pierre Leblanc, independent shopkeeper

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Skeyemap is a three-year-old small company located in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia. The SME initially developed 3D models of buildings and panoramas to provide virtual reality marketing services to local authorities and tourism or leisure facilities. In 2012, the company started creating interactive visualisation solutions integrated in geographical environments.

The challenge

Skeyemap’s clients need to be visible and provide the various types of customers and visitors they usually welcome with exhaustive information and accurate impressions of their location, surroundings, and services, as their main selling points. The SME identified a market opportunity in providing its clients with the possibility to gather all the information needed by its customers (such as buildings, panoramas, landscapes, available services …etc.), usually scattered among various sources within a single interactive online geo-platform.

The satellite solution

Skeyemap uses Google Earth or Google Maps, combined with other open geographic data, to create an interactive interface based on tri-dimensional models for a given geographical area. A dedicated website is created for each modelled area, accessible on personal computers directly on traditional web browsers.  In a very intuitive way, users visualise the area, as if they were on the ground, target the objects they are interested in and zoom on them.

For example, one can virtually visit the Geopark of Banska Bystrica or the lake of Strba, in Slovakia. The level of precision enables users to experience a very realistic and accurate tour of the areas, with the exact point of view they would have had from a given spot.

The result

By combining virtual reality and satellite data on a web platform, Skeyemap is able to provide a competitive edge to its clients. The SME was the first and unique Slovak company to provide such digital marketing services in Slovakia. Originally named 3Dmodel, the company recently expanded its client portfolio and capitalised on the success of the product to adapt its commercial image and change its name. 

“Thanks to satellite information Skeyemap expands its activities and becomes highly competitive on the marketing services market” Jaroslav Piroh, Skeyemap owner

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Jeremy Wood is an artist and mapmaker whose work is an expression of the poetry and politics of space. He created the one-man company GPS drawing in 2000, based in Oxford, UK.

Jeremy Wood exhibits internationally and conducts GPS drawing and mapping lectures and workshops in schools, universities, museums and galleries.

The challenge

Jeremy Wood wanted to investigate the expressive qualities of digitally tracings his daily movements and to create an original approach to the reading and writing of places.

One of his artistic challenges is to negotiate the complexity of public spaces on which he draws, and to bind arts and sciences by using both drawing and technology to produce a personal cartography.

Therefore, Jeremy needed a technology able to reveal ones’ tracks to introduce new approaches to travel, navigation and local awareness.

The satellite solution

Jeremy Wood started to explore the potential of satellite navigation for digital mark-making on water, over land and in the air. Equipped with a GPS receiver, the artist – sometimes together with people attending his workshops- explores open spaces, cities, parks, roads or footpaths. Geographical coordinates of the artist are recorded over a period of time. The points are then joined along a line of movement, creating a dot-to-dot drawing. The outcomes depend on the available space and time as the more notable results usually appear after a bit of experimentation.

The result

Drawing with satellite navigation challenges our perceptions of scale and orientation, by travelling as a geodetic pencil. It engages the artist in an act of map-making that involves a physical exploration of the environment.

Through teaching workshops at schools, universities and museums, Jeremy Woods gets the opportunity to engage with unfamiliar places where he would not have been invited to. Sharing his work and seeing others draw and map with satellite navigation in unique ways encourages him to keep moving.

Jeremy Wood’s work is exhibited internationally and is part of the permanent collection of the London Transport Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the University of the Arts in London.

” GPS drawing engages a range of creative applications and challenges perceptions of scale by travelling as a geodetic pencil “ Jeremy Wood.

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Scotland is part of the United Kingdom and borders on England to the South. The Scottish Government is the executive of Scotland’s devolved government (since 1999) and is competent in the areas of health, education, justice, transport, rural affairs and economic development. Scotland is characterised by vast remote and sparsely populated areas, notably in the highlands and islands.

The Challenge

In 2006, following commercial rollout and a number of Scottish Government-led demand-side and supply-side initiatives, coverage of broadband in Scotland had reached over 99 %. However, the remaining (less than) 1 % of premises – principally located in rural and remote areas – were still left without access to a broadband connection. The Scottish Government considered that broadband access was vital to the development of the rural economy.

After careful examination, the Scottish Government concluded that conventional (fixed-line) broadband was unlikely to be able to bridge the remaining gap in coverage, and therefore considered alternative technical solutions.

The Satellite Solution

In 2007, the Scottish Government provided a grant of £3 million in the framework of the Broadband Reach Project, which sought to identify and provide broadband connections in areas without access. An awareness-raising programme to identify demand – including targeted local radio and press campaigns – was launched. This resulted in over 4000 registered expressions of interest.
Following an open procurement process, a combination of satellite and wireless emerged as the most appropriate technology for delivery of this project, in terms of technical feasibility, installation cost and sustainability of the service.
The Scottish Government’s grant covered the cost of customer premises equipment (for example: satellite dish/wireless antenna) and
associated installation fees when a customer signed up to be connected. The customers then took out a subscription for broadband access directly with the service provider. This ensured that citizens would be offered an affordable and sustainable broadband service.

The Results

Approximately 2400 connections were set up out of the 4000+ original registrations. The remainder did not result in connections for a variety of reasons.  Some had registered to bolster local demand in certain areas without actually wishing a connection themselves; others had found alternative solutions (e.g. 3G+) in the meantime.

The Broadband Reach Project successfully bridged the digital gap inScotland.  It responded to all known broadband demand by offering a basic service and supported many rural businesses, households and communities.

“The Scottish Government’s intervention provided around 2 400 premises with an affordable, sustainable broadband service where, due to the lack of commercial viability, no other solution was available.” Harry Emambocus, Enabling Technologies Team

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The Media Centre within the Education Department of the city of Helsinki is in charge of developing media education and e-learning by supporting teachers’ ICT skills and media competence. The centre is also developing mobile technology projects with tablets and laptops, which include geo-information.

The challenge

The Media Centre is always in search for innovative learning methods in order to advance teaching methods and standards in Helsinki schools. Between 2011 and 2015 the Media Centre is testing several solutions based on GPS technology for outdoor education for inquiry-based learning, which aimed at implementing playful learning methods in primary schools.

The satellite solution

Action Track, a GPS-based learning game, was implemented at the beginning of 2014 in five primary schools in Helsinki. This solution, launched by the Finnish company TAZ, allows people without any special skills to create location-based activities, which can then be downloaded via a mobile application and played outside.

How does it work? Teachers use the ActionTrack web tool to select several locations on Google Maps, and upload multimedia material. It can be information about the place, interactive challenges, questions, or check-points. Pupils download this itinerary on their phones or tables, and let themselves be guided in real time, thanks to the GPS system on their phones, by following an arrow on their screen, or pictures of things they must find and recognise along their route, or by using a compass showing on their screens. Once they get to a check-point, players can check in real time by scanning a QR code indoors or by using GPS outdoors.

The result

Different types of projects were developed in each school. In the field of environmental education for instance, pupils can identify plants and animals during outdoor activities thanks to geolocated placemarks. In history, they discovered key facts on the Suomenlinna fortress, a UNESCO classified monument in Helsinki, by creating a mobile game based on geoinformation, which is now available to all visitors.

Two projects were also implemented around the theme of “urban discovery”. In the first one, pupils created a fiction story located in an empty area in Eastern Helsinki, which challenges users to find better ways to use the urban space, via a wide scale geolocated role play. In the other, they developed a game enabling citizens to easily find essential services throughout the city, such as public transports.

Playful lessons are more motivating for students, bring variation to the school day, and encourage team work. Thanks to this new way of learning, the Media Centre is hoping to make teaching methods ever more interactive. 

“Action track enables geolocated educational tasks and evaluation for pupils. It is user-friendly, motivating and makes learning fun. Location based applications allow pupils to observe and annotate their environment of their own.” Juhani Kärki, Project Coordinator, Media Centre of Helsinki

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evolaris is Austria’s leading competence centre for mobile innovation based in Graz. It was set up in 2000 as a network of experts in different areas of competence, aiming to bridge the gap between the results of research and the economy. The network focuses on the conception and development of applications for the web and mobile devices as well as the evaluation of business models for an economically useful exploitation of mobile technologies.

The challenge

Among its other activities, in the retail sector the company identified an opportunity in the recent radical changes in how brands communicate with customers. Customer loyalty is the key to success in retail and the phone is becoming the preferred connecting tool between the point-of-sale and existing advertising channels. In working for Raiffeisen Bank, evolaris’ challenge was to devise a mobile loyalty solution to support multi-channel customer loyalty programmes.

The satellite solution

evolaris developed a mobile loyalty platform that integrates multiple channels (such as SMS, websites, social media, apps) to provide an integrated digital communication solution with the members of the Raiffeisen Club – a loyalty programme for the young target group of the bank. The mobile phone app in particular, developed in 2010 relies on the smartphone’s satnav to promote discounts, tickets to football games, concerts and other events, to members of the club, based on their location, through push notifications. The app lists the events based on the distance to the customer’s location, Raiffeisen Banks and ATMs and indicates the quickest way to get to them. This ensures that customers always have relevant information at their hands. At the moment this application is enhanced with Bluethooth Low Energy (iBeacon) technology to allow support of hyperlocal proximity cases.

The result

Raiffeisen bank financed the app which is available for free in on the App Store, Google Play and Ovi since 2010.

“Location based services is the technical innovation we have been waiting for. We offer a number of club activites such as discounted tickets, festivals and other benefits. As all the offers are location-dependend, a simple and transparent overview ist very important. – this is where location based services offer a tremendous added value”.Herbert Horak, Raiffeisen Club Austria 

“Location based services is the technical innovation we have been waiting for. We offer a number of club activites such as discounted tickets, festivals and other benefits. As all the offers are location-dependend, a simple and transparent overview ist very important. – this is where location based services offer a tremendous added value”.
Herbert Horak, Raiffeisen Club Austria 

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