Maritime-focused satellite data start-up Spire has raised US$40m in a second round of funding to help finance its planned 20 nanosat weather constellation. Promus Ventures led the round while other new investors included Bessemer Venture Partners and…
Maritime-focused satellite data start-up Spire has raised US$40m in a second round of funding to help finance its planned 20 nanosat weather constellation.
Promus Ventures led the round while other new investors included Bessemer Venture Partners and Jump Capital. Existing investors RRE Ventures and Lemnos Labs also participated.
The transaction means Spire has raised more than US$80m since its inception as Naosatisfi back in 2012.
Spire, which intends to launch 20 satellites into low Earth orbit by the end of 2015, raised US$25m in mid-2014. The company will begin deploying its satellites on a near monthly basis beginning September 2015.
The new funding will go towards supporting this plan, which requires the construction of 20 ground stations around the world, as well as for spurring further growth. Spire’s CEO Peter Platzer has spoken of his aim to have a constellation of more than 100 nanosatellites by the end of 2017.
Commenting on the fundraising, David Cowan, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners and a former board member of Skybox Imaging, said: “With a highly entrepreneurial San Francisco team developing a true multi-sensor, nanosat platform, Spire is the poster child of new space.
“Spire has advanced from start-up to deployment faster than any space venture we’ve seen—at this rate it will quickly become the largest constellation known to man.”
Spire’s weather sensor technology is based on GPS Radio Occultation (GPS-RO), which tracks GPS signals travelling through Earth’s atmosphere and converts them into data on temperature, pressure and water vapour. The company is mainly focusing on the three-quarters of the Earth that is covered by oceans or considered remote.
Spire plans to sell its raw data to weather forecasting agencies and commercial weather forecasting companies, as well as the maritime and insurance industries.
Mike Collett, founder and managing director of Promus Ventures, added: “I continue to be massively impressed by the customer traction at Spire.
“Peter and his team have developed a clear value proposition with their approach to high frequency remote sensing data and they are adding blue chip customers, both public and private, at a notable pace.
“Many of those same customers never before considered purchasing this type of data, precisely because they could not do anything without the frequency and reliability that Spire is bringing to the market.”
