Canada-based Ecopia Tech has raised the sum of $6.5 million to digitally map the Sub-Saharan Africa regions. The company will leverage artificial intelligence to convert high-resolution imagery of the earth into HD Vector maps for decision-making in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The project involves the digital mapping of about 342 million buildings, 3.8 linear kilometres of roads and 582 million hectares of forests, with the support from SDTC. This will help governments, NGOs and business organizations make relevant decisions based on the acquired data. For example, it will affect decisions such as the area for constructing new roads, the distribution of vaccines, infrastructural developments in localities, the siting of educational institutes, etc.
Ecopia Tech was founded by Yuanming Shu, Jon Lipinski and Shuo Tan in 2013. The company aims to digitize the world using AI to provide information extracted from geospatial big data for critical decision-making. Organizations would be able to integrate these maps into their geographic information systems for further research and analysis.
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Ecopia has since inception, provided the database of HD Vector Map Content across 60 countries around the world.
Speaking about the project, Emily Jackson, the Vice President of Communications at Ecopia added, “Our unique selling point is both accuracy across any terrain and high capacity, which enables us to do continental-scale mapping”.
According to Jon Lipinski, President and Co-founder of Ecopia, the project will showcase Canadian technology on the world stage and also positively impact the lives of hundreds of millions by introducing data-driven decisions to the environment, economy, and societies of Africa.
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