WindBorne Systems has secured a contract with the U.S. Air Force to provide atmospheric data collected by its fleet of autonomous weather balloons. The agreement is valued at up to $49 million, with the military paying for specific data orders as needed. To date, the Air Force has placed orders totaling $1.7 million.
The startup, founded in 2015 and based in Redwood City, currently operates approximately 700 weather balloons globally. These balloons collect sensor readings that are integrated into the company's proprietary AI weather forecasting model, WeatherMesh 6. The contract was awarded without competitive bidding due to the company's unique capability to provide global data.
The funding from this contract will support the expansion of the balloon constellation and research into hardware improvements. In August, the company raised $37 million in a Series B funding round. Additionally, WindBorne recently demonstrated its navigation capabilities by sending an unpowered balloon into the eye of a typhoon to collect data.
