GEO Business returns to Excel London on 3–4 June, spotlighting the people and technologies using geospatial data to tackle real-world challenges. Joining this year’s speaker line-up is Abigail Hoover, CEO at Orbiventure.
What inspired you to found Orbiventure, and what challenge are you most passionate about solving?
What inspired you to found Orbiventure, and what challenge are you most passionate about solving?
Orbiventure grew out of a project at the Pratt Institute of Design exploring how to connect New York citizens with the return of Humpback Whales to their coastline through satellite Earth Observation. It was the moment I first glimpsed the real potential of EO in marine environments.
What truly excited me, and what became the foundation of Orbiventure’s values was the idea that downstream space data could drive meaningful conservation outcomes when combined with local knowledge and human-centered design. That combination is what transforms data into genuine educational experiences and useful services for the communities who need them most.
As the company has grown, our product SeaVoice has evolved into a tool purpose-built for fishers and environmental monitoring. At its core, our mission is to make SeaVoice genuinely useful in building resilience for local communities, unlocking new and equitable opportunities for coastal development, and protecting our oceans and people in the process.
What excites you most about the future of geospatial AI?
What excites you most about the future of geospatial AI?
What excites us most about the next chapter of geospatial AI is the resources, programmes, and grants being directed toward connecting downstream terrestrial communities to the benefits of space data at a scale and pace that simply didn’t exist until recently.
What we are seeing are a new generation of founders; many with no background in the space industry recognising the potential of geospatial data and building with it. Initiatives like Copernicus and the Sentinel programme have made high-quality data accessible, meaning entrepreneurs can now integrate it directly into their products and deliver real value to the customers they serve. Orbiventure had the amazing opportunity to participate in the UKRI Geo:AI Festival. We are a young company but the mentorship, AWS resources, and access to like-minded companies taught us how to best use EO in our marine ambitions.
For a long time, space data was largely used by those already within the space sector. I genuinely believe that culture is shifting and the democratisation of geospatial AI is only just beginning.
What can attendees expect from your GEO Business session, and what conversations are you hoping to spark?
What can attendees expect from your GEO Business session, and what conversations are you hoping to spark?
Attendees can expect an honest conversation about fishers and marine communities told through the lens of user needs rather than technology.
Orbiventure is a company driven by service design, and in many ways that means space data comes later in our process. That’s a deliberate inversion of how many EO companies operate. Rather than leading with how we use data, we lead with who uses it in their lives, their limitations, and the gaps that existing tools have failed to address. That human-first approach is what gives us confidence that SeaVoice can play a meaningful role in supporting inshore fishing communities.
The conversations I’m hoping to spark are ones that challenge the industry to ask different questions. Not just “what does the data show?” but “who does this actually serve, and how do we know?” If attendees leave thinking differently about the relationship between space data and the communities it’s meant to benefit, that’s a win for us.
Why is an event like GEO Business so important for the industry right now?
Why is an event like GEO Business so important for the industry right now?
GEO Business is an important event to the industry right now as it’s a transdisciplinary gathering ground for those interested in Geospatial data.
Orbiventure has refined many of its offerings through learning with adjacent sectors in agriculture, insurance, or even forest fighting.
By understanding how others have built their backend and where their bottlenecks are, establishes a unique dataset on how to apply our model better and where we can collaborate with other emerging sectors in the future.
About Abigail
Abigail Hoover is the Founder and CEO of Orbiventure, a geospatial AI company rethinking automated catch reporting and vessel analytics for fisheries and coastal management. With over six years commercialising satellite Earth Observation across wildfire response, autonomous systems, and defence, she also holds an MASc in Design Engineering/Global Innovation from Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art.
Named as a ‘Design Ambassador’ by Good Design Australia and a former project manager for the World Design Organisation, Abigail rooted Orbiventure in design thinking to tackle one of the ocean’s hardest balancing acts: protecting biodiversity, supporting fishing livelihoods, and simplifying data collection for emerging coastal developments.
💡 Join Abigail at GEO Business 2026 for ‘GeoAI Pitch Sessions’, where the GeoAI Finalists bring innovators, public sector, researchers and industry together to build, validate, and showcase deployable EO+AI products.
📆 3 June | Demo Stage | 14:30-15:30