Beedie MBA alumni take top prize at SFU’s largest entrepreneurship competition
Apr 30, 2019
Using drone technology to deliver aerial intelligence at scale, Spexi GeoSpatial wins the 2019 Coast Capital Savings Venture Prize
A start-up that uses drone technology to make geospatial data more accessible has won SFU’s largest entrepreneurship competition.
Spexi GeoSpatial emerged from a slate of promising early-stage SFU entrepreneurs to win SFU’s eighth annual Coast Capital Savings Venture Prize competition, claiming the title of ‘top venture’ and taking home a cash and in-kind prize package worth $35,000.
The start-up aims to empower organizations by using drone technology to deliver aerial intelligence at scale. The firm’s cloud-based platform provides a streamlined end-to-end solution that automates drone flights, photogrammetric data processing, and geospatial data analysis.
Co-founders Bill Lakeland and Peter Szymczak met while completing the Management of Technology MBA program at SFU’s Beedie School of Business. Lakeland’s geospatial background and Szymczak’s technical background made them a great pairing for this venture.
“Winning the Venture Prize means we can hire additional software engineers to help us scale our cloud offerings faster, and reach our mission of making geospatial data more accessible sooner,” says Peter Szymczak, co-founder of Spexi Geospatial, which also won the competition’s Top Science and Technology award.
“As we continue to gain traction in our initial markets, the additional resources will really allow us to build on our successes and reach our goals sooner.”
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