Context Labs and the Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust Announce the Launch of Spherical Analytics (S|A)

New company is building the world’s trusted platform for global environmental data

Context Labs and The Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust (“Grantham Environmental Trust”) announced the launch of Spherical Analytics™ (S|A), a new company formed to build the world’s most trusted platform for global environmental data, analytics and modeling tools. The S|A platform, called Impact Analytics™, provides pedigreed analytics to verify outcomes and risk models by integrating leading-edge tools such as blockchain, big data, network graph analytics, Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and machine learning.

Jeremy Grantham, a leading global investor and advocate for action on climate change stated, “I believe that humanity is in the midst of what I call ‘the race of our lives,’ between accelerating damage to the global climate and natural world on the one hand and technological progress that could reduce these impacts on the other. In Spherical Analytics™ we see an opportunity to ensure the integrity of environmental data and thereby improve environmental protection efforts. We are excited to be partnering with Dan and his team at Context Labs and look forward to the results their data platform will help achieve.”

The vision for S|A was developed by Dan Harple, founder and CEO of Context Labs, in collaboration with the Grantham Environmental Trust. Their investment in S|A combines $3 million in new capital from the Grantham Environmental Trust with $4.5 million previously invested in blockchain research and development by Shamrock Ventures. The R&D enables one to draw a “climate polygon” around any geographic area of concern, using blockchain-enabled data-driven tools to deeply describe and predict impacts. Mr. Harple and the Context Labs team continue to collaborate with the Grantham Environmental Trust on environmental data needs and opportunities to leverage the S|A tools for its initiatives.

S|A’s platform, Impact Analytics^TM, is designed to ingest, cleanse and derive intelligence from diverse datasets within the context of environmental impact. In addition to advanced analytics and visualization capabilities, a fundamental differentiator from other tools is its use of distributed ledger technologies — including Context Labs’ Immutably™ blockchain platform and Proofworks™ attestation tools to ensure provenance and authenticity of data, analytics and resulting models.

Mark Brownstein, vice president, climate and energy at the Environmental Defense Fund (www.edf.org), commented, “The data revolution is giving people the power to identify and scale solutions as never before, providing new sets of tools that can drive transparency, responsibility and positive change. We congratulate Context Labs and the Grantham Trust on launching a new hub for environmental data innovation and look forward to continuing to work together to help people and nature prosper.”

Dan Harple commented, “Our passion for the environmental impact industrial society has on the planet was amplified by meeting and collaborating with Jeremy Grantham and his team, resulting in a common vision and the new investment in S|A. Our mission at S|A is to source and organize the world’s environmental information, with embedded blockchain-enabled provenance and veracity, to radically accelerate positive impacts and outcomes to Planet Earth. We do this by integrating blockchain technology with big data ingestion, machine learning and advanced analytics, providing a strategic tool for environmental impact, risk assessment and systemic change.”

S|A will be led by Dan Harple, who pioneered voice over internet protocol (VoIP), real-time streaming media, interactive screen sharing and real-time media for the social/local/mobile phenomenon. An Internet pioneer, serial entrepreneur and MIT Sloan Fellow, his next entrepreneurial focus led to practical applications to blend new blockchain-enabled technologies with network graph analytics, developing new platform solutions deeply rooted in providing data authenticity, provenance and veracity. Seeing the world’s climate and environmental data as one of the single most critical uses of data, he has focused Shamrock Ventures investment into technologies to provide impact. S|A is now the vehicle to pursue this mission.