PARIS — Smallsat developer Open Cosmos has raised $50 million to expand the corporate and develop larger satellites and constellations focused on Earth statement.
The corporate, based in the UK with offices in Spain and Portugal, announced Sept. 10 the Series B round. The round was led by ETF Partners, Trill Impact and A&G, three funds from “impact investors” that concentrate on firms that provide societal or environmental advantages. Several other investors also participated within the round.
The funding will help the 70-person company grow internationally, including in Latin America, the Middle East and the Asia Pacific. It is going to allow it to expand its current satellite offerings, which have been cubesats, to larger spacecraft in addition to constellations. The corporate can also be developing an satellite data analytics platform called DataCosmos.
“It is vital for us as a business to work with investors that imagine in our mission and align with our values to make use of technology to resolve urgent global problems and we’re delighted to seek out that with ETF Partners, Trill Impact and A&G,” said Rafel Jorda Siquier, chief executive and founding father of Open Cosmos, in a press release. “This investment will propel us forward, allowing us to speed up our growth, expand our capabilities and proceed offering cutting-edge solutions.”
The corporate has launched several smallsats so far to support Earth statement, communications and navigation applications. Jorda Siquier said the corporate has five more satellites scheduled to launch through next March, all 6U or 12U cubesats with a variety of Earth statement applications, from agriculture to disaster management.
The funding, he said, will go help the corporate move into microsatellites. It is going to also support development of OpenConstellation, what the corporate calls a “mutualized satellite infrastructure” where firms share capability on their satellites with others.
“The OpenConstellation was created to enable organizations to share the info generated by satellites for improved access to information on our planet to drive sustainability and impact,” he said. “By sharing space assets, we’re dramatically lowering costs and simplifying access to Earth statement data.”
Open Cosmos argues it may well stand out within the crowded Earth statement sector with “cost-effective end-to-end fully managed missions” for its customers, Jorda Siquier said. “We pride ourselves on agile development, can accommodate diverse applications, and foster global partnerships.”
That argument won over investors who see advantages from the corporate’s approach to collecting Earth statement data. “Through their technological innovation, Open Cosmos has proven that space is an important resource for the continued health and prosperity of our planet,” said Patrick Sheehan, managing partner of ETF Partners, in a press release. “Open Cosmos is an ideal match for our values and provides an exciting opportunity for profitable investment into a strong and growing market.”
“Open Cosmos is a frontrunner in providing multi-sensor space data at a reasonable cost and we consider it a pioneer with creating an app store-like analytics offering,” said Toba Spiegel, investment manager at Trill Impact, within the statement.
Before the Series B round, Open Cosmos had raised $7 million since its founding in 2015. The corporate said its revenues have doubled annually since 2020, but didn’t disclose specific figures. Jorda Siquier said the corporate has had positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization since 2021.