Jatin S. Bains, Founder, CEO + Chairman of Space-Eyes, sat down with eMerge Americas following the company’s participation in National Security Demo Day to discuss counter-drone technology, geospatial intelligence, autonomous systems and the future of national security innovation.
The future of national security is becoming increasingly autonomous, connected and data-driven as governments and enterprises are in a race to better understand and respond to dynamic and unpredictable environments.
As drones become more accessible, satellite technology continues to evolve and artificial intelligence accelerates the speed at which information can be processed, defense organizations face a new challenge: How do you turn massive amounts of data into actionable intelligence and do it faster than an adversary?
For Jatin S. Bains, Founder, CEO + Chairman of Space-Eyes, the answer starts with geospatial intelligence.
“We provide geospatial intelligence,” Bains explains. “And what that really means is we take data from a lot of different satellite sensors. Fuse it together, extract intelligence, and then solve whatever is the war fighters problem.”
That mission has taken Space-Eyes from its origins in maritime domain dominance to a broader focus on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, space-based data, and emerging defense technologies to deliver decision-grade awareness.
Today, one of the company’s key areas of focus is counter-drone technology, an increasingly important capability as unmanned systems become cheaper, more sophisticated and more widely available.
And as Space-Eyes prepares for its next chapter, Bains sees an opportunity that extends well beyond drones: building a more connected view of the battlespace across Space, Airborne, Land, Surface and Sub-Surface.
What Is Space-Eyes?
Space-Eyes is a geospatial intelligence company that brings together data from different satellite sensors and other sources to generate intelligence for defense applications.
The company was founded 25 years ago in the aftermath of 9/11, initially focusing on maritime domain dominance. As low-Earth-orbit satellites made geospatial intelligence increasingly achievable, Space-Eyes pivoted toward intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
The formation of the U.S. Space Force in 2019 represented another evolution for the company, pushing its work further into intelligence and awareness capabilities.
Bains describes the company’s development as a series of pivots driven by changes in technology and the needs of its customers.
One of its newest areas of focus is counter-drone technology.
Why Counter-Drone Technology Matters
Drones are changing the national security landscape.
Their relatively low cost and increasing accessibility mean that unmanned aircraft are no longer limited to highly specialized military applications. They can be deployed at scale, creating challenges for military installations as well as critical infrastructure, utilities and other sensitive environments.
Bains compares the evolution of drones to the impact smartphones had on journalism.
“Just like iPhones made everybody a journalist. Same thing’s gonna happen with drones,” he said.
He argues that the accessibility of inexpensive drones could dramatically expand the number of actors capable of creating security threats.
“Anybody with a $100 drone or $50 drone and IED can become a terrorist,” Bains said.
That creates a need for counter-UAS—or C-UAS—technology capable of addressing threats quickly and at scale.
A Non-Kinetic Approach to Counter-UAS
Many counter-drone systems rely on kinetic methods to physically destroy an incoming drone. Bains describes Space-Eyes’ approach differently.
“What we do is we just do non-kinetic,” he said.
The company’s technology monitors radio-frequency signals and bands and can manipulate and hijack drone telemetry. According to Bains, this can allow operators to take control of a drone without the adversary necessarily realizing that its telemetry is being manipulated.
The company says its technology can take down approximately one drone per second.
For Bains, scalability is particularly important as drone warfare moves toward increasingly large swarms.
“If you’re gonna push for 1000 drones or 100,000 drones,” he said. “The thing is, drones are so cheap now.”
The challenge is that conventional methods may struggle to keep pace with large numbers of rapidly moving drones.
The National Security Technology Race Is About Speed
For Bains, counter-drone technology is one example of a much larger transformation taking place across national security.
He believes the next generation of defense innovation will be shaped by two major forces: reducing latency and increasing autonomy.
In other words, information only becomes strategically valuable when it can be turned into action.
As AI systems become more capable, Bains sees autonomous technologies playing a larger role in how military organizations gather information, analyze threats and respond.
“If you’re gonna act at the speed of relevance, then you need to have a lot of, basically unmanned autonomous systems that are working themselves,” he says.
He points to collaborative combat aircraft, unmanned surface vessels and other autonomous systems as examples of where defense technology is heading.
The shift isn’t limited to aerial systems. Autonomous platforms are increasingly being developed across multiple domains, creating a need for technologies that can understand and coordinate activity across all of them.
From Space to the Sea: The Push Toward All-Domain Awareness
That convergence is central to Bains’ vision for the future of Space-Eyes.
The company is looking beyond individual sensors and domains toward what he describes as unified all-domain awareness.
Space-Eyes has historically worked with satellite, infrared and radio-frequency data. Bains sees an opportunity to combine those capabilities with acoustic and sonar intelligence to create a more comprehensive view of activity below the surface as well.
“We recently bought a company that does a lot of work for the U.S. and nuclear submarines, you know, the Virginia and Columbia class,” Bains said.
The acquisition gives Space-Eyes access to acoustic and sonar capabilities that can complement its existing work.
“Nobody’s actually combined that with acoustics,” he says. “So then you start getting multi domain awareness.”
The goal is to connect information across the battlespace.
Bains describes a future in which a commander could understand the location and activity of friendly and adversary assets across domains, from submarines and satellites to unmanned aircraft, carriers and destroyers.
For Space-Eyes, the opportunity lies in bringing these disparate streams of intelligence together to create a more complete picture of the operating environment.
What Can National Security Startups Learn From Warfighters?
Building technology for national security comes with a unique challenge: The people who ultimately use the technology often have highly specialized operational needs that aren’t obvious from the outside.
Bains’ advice to emerging defense and national security startups is to get as close to those end users as possible.
He recommends joining accelerators and programs that connect startups directly with defense stakeholders and warfighters.
“When you sit on the outside, you speculate what the problem is,” Bains said. “You don’t really know the problem.”
For startups, those relationships can help bridge the gap between developing technology and solving an actual operational problem.
“The best way is accelerators,” Bains said.
From National Security Demo Day to the Next Chapter
In April, Space-Eyes participated in eMerge Americas’ National Security Demo Day, giving the company an opportunity to showcase its technology to investors, leaders and members of the national security ecosystem.
For Bains, the value of an event like Demo Day isn’t limited to what happens during the pitch itself.
“You meet somebody and the conversations continue,” he said.
That ongoing connection is particularly important for emerging national security companies, where relationships among founders, investors, government stakeholders and industry leaders can play an important role in moving technologies forward.
Space-Eyes’ participation in Demo Day came as the company continued to expand its focus on counter-drone technology and prepare for its next stage of growth.
Scaling Space-Eyes’ Next Chapter
For Space-Eyes, that next chapter includes the public markets.
Bains says access to capital is a critical part of the company’s strategy for scaling.
“If you want to be able to scale, you need to be able to have access to capital,” he said.
That scaling strategy could include acquisitions that expand the company’s capabilities.
Bains describes a vision in which Space-Eyes can support warfighters both when they are actively engaged in conflict and when they are preparing for it.
“What do war fighters do? They’re either fighting wars, or if they’re not fighting war, they’re training,” he said.
That means simulations, exercises and training become another important part of the broader national security technology ecosystem.
Space-Eyes is exploring opportunities to expand into that space.
The strategy reflects a larger philosophy: Rather than building every capability organically, Space-Eyes can use partnerships and acquisitions to bring complementary technologies together.
Building What Comes Next
The evolution of Space-Eyes mirrors a broader transformation in national security.
The boundaries between space technology, AI, autonomous systems, geospatial intelligence and defense are becoming increasingly interconnected.
For companies operating in this space, the challenge is no longer simply building a better sensor, a faster algorithm or a more capable drone.
It’s about connecting those technologies and delivering intelligence quickly enough to matter.
From its beginnings in maritime intelligence to its work in space-based data and counter-drone technology, Space-Eyes is continuing to evolve alongside the rapidly changing national security landscape.
And if Bains’ vision is any indication, the next frontier won’t be defined by one technology or one domain.
It will be defined by how effectively they work together.
As eMerge Americas continues to evolve, we’re more committed than ever to fostering collaboration, sparking innovation, and highlighting the transformative power of Florida’s thriving tech ecosystem.
