Spanish startup promises to launch first four commercial satellites by June
Spain-based satellite IoT startup Satelliot has announced plans to seek €100 million in equity and debt from private equity investors, funds and banks, according to media reports. hopes to buck the trend.
The startup, which partnered with Telefonica last August, has already put two test satellites into orbit, has book orders worth around 187 million euros in annual revenue, and has customers, mostly mobile and mobile, in countries such as Canada. They claim to come from countries with large areas not covered by the network. Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia or Australia, CEO Jaume Sampera told Reuters.
The company plans to launch its first four commercial satellites by June, which will allow it to make claims. Sateriot, through SpaceX, spent approximately €25 million to develop, manufacture and launch into orbit two test satellites and the first four commercial satellites. Unlike other struggling small satellite providers, Satelliot has strong backers apart from its partnership with Telefonica. Shareholders include defense contractors Indra, Cellnex and the Spanish government.
Starting in 2024, Telefónica plans to become the first MNO to offer customers NB-IoT connectivity anywhere on the planet through a seamless combination of cellular and satellite-standard NB-IoT networks with affordable commercial standard NB-IoT. That’s what I’m aiming for. device. Last year, the companies showed that standard roaming connections can be authenticated by the Telefonica core over Sateliot’s network.
Sateliot’s patented “Store & Forward” two-step verification method was also successfully tested. This technology allows satellites to store data when they are not communicating with a ground station and transfer the data when they return within range. This is important when satellite constellations are still small and IoT applications are delay-tolerant.
Partner selection
Sateliot recently signed an agreement with Turkcell to test and demonstrate connectivity to the IoT market in out-of-service areas of Turkey. Gianluca Redolfi, Chief Commercial Officer of Satelliot, pointed out that the standard approach allows any of his MNOs to integrate satellite connectivity into their services with a simple roaming agreement.
Last month, Sateliot collaborated with Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) to connect its 5G messaging service with Amazon Web Services (AWS) via Satco’s commercial network, KSATlite. Sateliot used his AWS to build a fully virtualized cloud-native 5G core for NB-IoT ground-based networks. Satelliot claims to have signed agreements with “hundreds of IoT solution providers” during 2023 to bring standard 5G satellite connectivity to industries, digitizing agriculture, livestock management, maritime logistics, among others. There is.
