Russia’s first private space company Dauria Aerospace has secured US$20m in fresh funding from venture capital firm I2BF Global Ventures.
The investment represents Dauria’s second funding round since its formation in 2011. The company raised US$10m…
Russia’s first private space company Dauria Aerospace has secured US$20m in fresh funding from venture capital firm I2BF Global Ventures.
The investment represents Dauria’s second funding round since its formation in 2011. The company raised US$10m in a first round of financing from management and Russian investors at the beginning of 2012.
Proceeds are to be used as working capital to serve existing contracts, technology development and new satellite platforms.
Founded by Russian entrepreneur Mikhail Kokorich and headquartered in the Skolkovo Technopark in Moscow, Dauria is manufacturing micro and nano satellites with the aim of establishing low-cost satellite constellations that can provide rapid remote monitoring services, such as machine-to-machine wireless communication and earth observation.
The company plans to integrate its space-based infrastructure with geodata cloud based platform CloudEO, a Munich-based software firm that enables the development of geodata applications. CloudEO is partly-owned by Kokorich.
Dauria’s first satellite, the 50kg DX1-class satellite, is due to be launched by the end of this year. Its second satellite, Kubsat Nano, is being developed by subsidiary SPE Dauriya and has been partially funded by Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, in what is believed to be the country’s first space-based PPP.
Commenting on the investment, Kokorich said: “In the two years since Dauria Aerospace was founded, we’ve reached several key milestones in technology development and have successfully secured contracts and established our global presence.
“We are confident that with our new partnership with I2BF Global Ventures and the invested capital, we will succeed in reaching our amplified goals in the next few years.”
Though it has predominantly focused on investing in clean technologies, I2BF Global Ventures is no stranger to funding commercial space start-ups. In mid-2012, it made an undisclosed investment in asteroid mining start-up Planetary Resources.
Ilya Golubovich, founding partner of I2BF Global Ventures, stated: “I2BF sees a rising opportunity for scarce resources management and discovery through innovative space applications. Our investment in Dauria Aerospace reinforces our intention to grow our exposure to this exciting new frontier.
“The aerospace sector is ripe for brilliant entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists to build off the foundation that national programs have put in place. With facilities in California’s NASA Ames Research Park, DLR incubator in Munich and in Innograd Skolkovo Moscow, Dauria represents the next generation of global aerospace start-ups, collaborating and working across borders with applications that can directly benefit areas such as agriculture, disaster prevention, water control and resource management.”
