Floating Weed Manager: business case. Report to European Space Agency on ESTEC Contract no. 4000131344/20/NL/FGL

The desirability of our service has been developed through a number of quantified surveys of customer’s needs and current operations. This was initially evaluated from 8 surveys of customers in six organisations across three regions (USA, South Africa and East Africa) and additional dialogue with two customers in Australia. Further evidence of the desirability was provided by the customer surveys of the Proof of Concept products and portal. The work conducted in this Feasibility Study has demonstrated that it is technologically feasible to deliver an EO-based floating weed monitoring system that meets users’ needs. We examined commercial viability for conservative and optimistic scenarios over a 5-year period. Our conservative estimates indicate a positive cash flow from year 2 onwards with an annual profit of €360K after 5 years. Our optimistic (but realistic) scenario indicates a positive cash flow from year 1 and an annual profit of about €500K by year 5. Overall, the commercial assessment carried out to-date indicates that the Floating Weed Manager service is viable.