[SatNews] "…Spire is the poster child of New Space…"
Spire, a satellite-powered data company, today announced it closed a $40 million Series B round of funding led by Promus Ventures with participation from new investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Jump Capital, as well as existing investors RRE Ventures and Lemnos Labs, among others. To date, Spire has secured just over $80 million through three rounds of funding. With the new funds, the company will support further growth and expand its constellation from 20 satellites in 2015 to more than 100 by the end of 2017.
The latest round of financing comes at a time when the need for advancements in weather and maritime data is at an all-time high. With the potentially catastrophic 2016 Weather Gap right around the corner, Spire offers a solution to the $2.4 trillion dollar global problem. Emerging as a leader in the ‘Space Race 2.0’, Spire is the only commercial weather data provider with scheduled launches in 2015. The company will begin deploying its satellites on a near monthly basis beginning September 2015.
“With a highly entrepreneurial San Francisco team developing a true multi-sensor, nano-sat platform, Spire is the poster child of New Space,“ said BVP partner David Cowan, who recently served on the board of Skybox Imaging (acquired by Google).”Spire has advanced from startup to deployment faster than any space venture we’ve seen—at this rate it will quickly become the largest constellation known to man."
The company’s satellites employ advanced software defined radios to collect global remote sensing data with a focus on the three-quarters of the Earth that is covered by oceans or considered remote. The current generation of Spire satellites focus primarily on weather tracking, climate science, global supply chain monitoring, and broader maritime domain awareness. And with a resilient global infrastructure already in place, Spire will soon deliver five times the amount of weather data and four times more frequently updated maritime data than previously possible through other means.
“I continue to be massively impressed by the customer traction at Spire,” said Mike Collett, Founder and Managing Director of Promus Ventures, who will be joining the Board of Directors. “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.”
The implications of better data are immense, and range from saving lives to saving literally billions of dollars that businesses, governments and consumers lose due to unpredictable weather or maritime accidents each and every year. By the end of 2015, Spire will have 20 satellites in orbit and 20 ground stations across the globe providing customers with data from any point on Earth delivered every 30-minutes. From Alaska to Dubai, Spire’s global ground station network is the most advanced of its kind for LEO satellite communication and data distribution.
“The last 12 months have been full of fast deliberate growth for Spire where we’ve opened offices in Singapore and Glasgow amongst incredibly strong customer traction”, said Peter Platzer, CEO of Spire. “These funds reinforce our ability to sustain exceptional innovation and hire the world’s top talent.”
