Canadian maritime tracking venture exactEarth has bought a minority stake in Australian signal processing startup Myriota to enter the satellite internet of things market. The deal comes as exactEarth is set to be spun off so its majority owner Com Dev can be sold to Honeywell.
Canadian maritime tracking venture exactEarth has bought a minority stake in Australian signal processing startup Myriota to enter the satellite internet of things market.
The group invested A$2m (US$1.4m) and its deal includes an exclusive licence to use Myriota’s technology in the maritime market, as well as options to make further investments to increase its shareholding.
It comes soon after exactEarth’s owner Com Dev (TSX:CDV) said it will spin off the group, as the latter is sold to US aerospace manufacturing giant Honeywell (NYSE:HON) in a C$455m deal.
Peter Mabson, exactEarth’s president, said: “exactEarth has already demonstrated that microsatellite constellations can be used to develop a successful high growth advanced global data services business.
“Our investment in Myriota is well aligned with our strategy to enter the satellite internet of things market. Between exactEarth’s global satellite technology infrastructure and Myriota’s advanced IoT technology, we will be well positioned to take this new capability to the next level.”
Myriota will use IP developed at the University of South Australia (UniSA) to build advanced terminals and infrastructure for the IoT market, particularly for the tracking and sensor data applications sector.
It aims to tap into exactEarth’s fleet of low Earth orbit satellites to commercialise the technology, and will demonstrate initial applications next year.
UniSA Ventures, the university’s commercialisation arm, is also a shareholder, along with Alex Grant and David Haley who led the team that developed the technology.
Grant, who is Myriota’s CEO, said: “We are working on advanced applications in the areas of agriculture, environmental sensing, oil and gas, mining and defence – and we expect that this is just the beginning.”
Com Dev owns 73% of exactEarth and Spain’s government-focused satellite services operator Hisdesat owns the rest. Their ownership levels after the Honeywell deal will remain about the same if the acquisition goes ahead as planned. It is subject to a shareholder vote in January and regulatory approvals.
exactEarth posted C$19.1m in revenue for the nine months to 31 July 2015, up 68% compared with the nine months ended 1 August 2014. EBITDA for the period climbed jumped from C$1.2m to C$3.6m.