UbiquitiLink has raised $5.2 million in “Seed 2 round” financing from Revolution’s Rise of the RestSeed Fund and Blazar Ventures. This financing infusion brings the company’s total funding to date to $12 million and will accelerate development of the company’s commercial service with a series of five space test flights of its technology.
According to the company, their technology will provide universal global connectivity directly to standard cell phones using a network of LEO smallsats. The UbiquitiLink service will also provide a safety net for people working in remote locations — in the future anybody will be able to use 911 from anywhere. The service will additionally create a highly reliable means for alerting people to impending natural disasters and instant backup and recovery from disasters that destroy communication networks — an element desired by relief agencies and first responders around the world.
Earlier this year, UbiquitiLink successfully launched and tested the world’s first “cell tower in space", demonstrating a link margin that was within 1 dB of theoretical predictions. Later this year, the world’s second “cell tower in space” will be launched to orbit to test both LTE (4G) and GSM (2G) connectivity. Space testing will start in August, which will be followed by the launch of operational satellites and initial commercial services in 2020.
Steve Case, Chairman and CEO of Revolution and co-founder of AOL, stated that UbiquitiLink’s mission of providing everyone, everywhere with mobile connectivity is well aligned with the focus of Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed fund. Revolution is excited to invest in technology that is helping to provide global connectivity and is designed to have a significant economic and social impact in rural and remote communities.
Charles Miller, co-founder and CEO of UbiquitiLink and a former senior NASA official, added that the company's ability to connect satellites directly to mobile phones anywhere on Earth solves a fundamental economic problem that limits coverage in remote areas. It is economically unaffordable to build cell towers on the ground in communities with low population densities. UbiquitiLink is building this solution for the 88 million Americans who live in rural areas and lose coverage at the edge of town as well as also building this solution for the 2.5 billion people in the world who don’t have a mobile phone, many because they are not connected where they live and work.
Mark Foster, Founding Partner at Blazar Ventures and formerly the founder of telecom services provider Neustar as well as the inventor of telephone number portability, added that Blazar is a founding investor in UbiquitiLink and is delighted to continue to support Charles and his unique team and technology. UbiquitiLink is poised to unlock the next growth spurt in the now-flat $1 trillion global mobile industry by providing cost-effective connectivity everywhere on the planet. The company is pleased to have the Revolution team join us.
