VIDA

VIDA is an AI-powered geospatial platform that development banks, governments, utilities, investors and project developers use to plan, de-risk, deliver and monitor infrastructure in more than 60 countries, particularly where official data is missing. It grew out of a 2018 conversation with the European Space Agency about new uses for geospatial data, started with rural electrification, and now also covers health facilities, schools, water systems, roads and connectivity.

The platform combines more than 100 global geospatial datasets with satellite imagery and project-specific data. Machine-learning models map buildings, settlements, energy demand and infrastructure from satellite imagery across entire countries; VIDA's ESA project material names Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 imagery and VIIRS night-light data, and very-high-resolution (50 cm) imagery is used for building-level work. Electrification models recommend grid extension, mini-grid or standalone solar for each settlement, while a risk engine scores physical climate, natural-hazard and biodiversity risk for single sites or portfolios under emissions pathways to 2030, 2050 and 2080. Monitoring combines satellite imagery with smart-meter and field data, for example detecting road-paving progress from imagery.

Users work in confidential, map-based workspaces with an Ask VIDA AI assistant, reports and exports; risk assessments are also delivered by API. Published deployments include Sierra Leone's national electrification platform (more than 21,000 settlements), the World Bank-funded DARES programme in Nigeria, where the geographically differentiated subsidy it informed saved more than $100m of the $750m programme in its first two years, automated EU Taxonomy climate-risk reports for German banks through vdpResearch under a 99.9% availability commitment, and pre-acquisition due diligence for EQT Infrastructure. VIDA is ISO 27001 certified.