Australia’s Imdex has found more technology gold in Norway, agreeing to pay A$33 million (US$22 million) for Earth Science Analytics and its highly regarded EarthNET AI-driven geoscience software.
ASX-listed Imdex’s CEO Paul House describes EarthNET, which secured early funding from energy major Saudi Aramco and has made a mark in oil and gas, as “foundational technology” that can complement its growing minerals-focused tech portfolio. The line-up includes Australian and Canadian developed Datarock and Krux software, respectively. “Combined, these platforms will materially expand our digital offering in FY26 and position it as a primary growth engine for our business,” House said.
Imdex currently has a circa-A$1.5 billion market value and derives about two-thirds of its $420 million annual revenues from sensor and software-as-a-service sales. It wrapped up its $324 million acquisition of Norway’s mineral-drilling tech leader Devico in early 2023.
Imdex is buying 80.5% of nine-year-old Earth Science Analytics (ESA) for $26 million now and the rest for at least $7 million within four years.
The Stavanger-based company has a team of more than 50 people. Its proprietary software is described as a cloud-native application that allows ingestion and integration of vast geoscience datasets for interrogation by machine learning models for accurate prediction of subsurface rock and fluid properties, leading to “greater profitability and higher success rates for oil and gas exploration, development and production”.
Imdex says ESA could contribute about $4 million of revenue and breakeven EBITDA in FY2026. It aims to integrate its Datarock, aiSIRIS and Mineportal products with EarthNET to create an “open platform for all earth systems and [deliver] enhanced AI-enabled geoscience solutions”.
“This acquisition is a defining step in the acceleration of our digital strategy across multiple end markets,” House said.
“By integrating ESA’s talent and EarthNET platform with Imdex’s existing capabilities we’re significantly reducing time-to-market for our orebody knowledge solutions.”
ESA raised series A equity capital in 2019 with Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures backing and followed that up with a US$8.54 million series B raise in 2020. This brought in Equinor Ventures, Wintershall Dea Technology Ventures and Sumitomo Corporation. Aramco Ventures director Arne Froiland said this week the firm saw Imdex as “the right partner to take ESA forward and ensure EarthNET remains at the forefront of AI-enabled geoscience decision-making”.
CEO Dr Eirik Larsen similarly saw ESA and Imdex as the right combination to “deliver even greater value to our customers across the energy and mining sectors”.
ESA’s technology was in early market adoption with oil and gas majors and national oil companies and the integration with Imdex’s digital portfolio would accelerate EarthNET’s growth in minerals and mining.
