Kleos Space s.à r.l. has managed a successful $2.2 million seed fund raising and intends to list on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in July of 2018 via an Initial Public Offering (IPO).
Kleos Space’s proprietary in-space manufacturing technology enables the deployment of very large structures in space. The company aims to leverage this proprietary technology with its first application being the Geolocation Intelligence Mission. The seed funding and the strategic decision to IPO will raise the capital required to rapidly accelerate the company’s satellite procurement, geolocation data sales, growth objectives, and will help fast start into the market in order to stay competitive.
In 2019, Kleos Space will launch the Geolocation Intelligence Mission. This Geolocation Intelligence satellite constellation is a revenue generating remote sensing/geolocation pathfinder satellite system that will be followed by a growing constellation of satellites that will further grow the Company and the value to the customer. The data the Kleos satellites gather from geolocated radio transmissions will be sold for search and rescue, maritime security and regulatory intelligence purposes by users for whom quality geospatial intelligence and signals intelligence is essential.
This type of data will be of significant importance and application for countries such as Australia, who have large coastline borders, and are under the constant threat of drug and people smuggling, and activities such as illegal fishing. The Kleos Space data will allow security agencies to better track and detect, as well as monitor, illegal vessels trying to enter Australian shores, and to protect Australia’s vast coastline.
Kleos Space plans to have both sales offices and local intelligence offices in Australia delivering targeted local solutions for Australian agencies.
In commenting on the upcoming IPO and decision to list in Australia, Andy Bowyer, Director of Kleos Space said that Kleos Space’s intended listing on the ASX has been enabled by the significant support we have received from the Luxembourg Government and the local expertise ecosystem. We are excited to be cooperating with other Luxembourg space companies new and old within the SpaceResources.lu initiative to further develop our offer, and anticipate significant Space segment contracts will be placed within the growing Luxembourg Space community.Australia is a key target market for Kleos Space. Its geolocation data will be of huge value to agencies tasked with managing and protecting Australia’s vast coastline from people and drug smugglers, and illegal fisherman.
Stephen Silver, CEO of Lead Manager, Hunter Capital Advisors, added that there was an overwhelming response from the company's investors, which reflects continued demand for access to unique investment opportunities and an appetite for offshore partnerships. The round was heavily oversubscribed and the firm looks forward to continuing the process with the upcoming listing on the ASX in Quarter 2, 2018. The support for Kleos Space highlights the suitability of the ASX as a marketplace for emerging companies with a global reach.
The announcement of the planned listing takes place only six months after the signature of a MoU with the Luxembourg Ministry of Economy which marked the start of Luxembourg Government’s support to the research and development phase of Kleos Space and to provide further support to the Company through Luxembourg research institutes such as LIST and other Luxembourg-based companies such as EmTroniX.