Urban Sky, a stratospheric platform company, recently closed a $30 million Series B investment round—this funding will be used to develop and commercialize a connected suite of products that will unlock the full value of the tactical stratosphere for military and commercial customers.
The funding round was led by Altos Ventures, with participation from New Legacy Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Catapult Ventures, Lavrock Ventures, New Stack Ventures, TenOneTen, DA Ventures (a Denver Angels Affiliate), Union Labs VC, and Techstars.
“As a fund, we believe in investing in deeply committed founding teams that understand one big thing that others don’t,” said Anthony Lee, Managing Director at Altos Ventures. “In Urban Sky, we see a category-defining opportunity and the potential for a great, lasting company. We’re excited to partner with them to unlock the full value of the stratosphere globally.”
Urban Sky’s existing tech stack includes the world’s most advanced high-altitude balloons, custom stratospheric payloads, control software, and AI-derived forecasting and autonomous flight control systems. Collectively, these systems enable high-resolution, persistent data monitoring above vast areas for commercial applications like real-time wildfire monitoring.
These same systems provide U.S. and allied defense users with what amounts to a “personally deployable satellite,” or a novel platform that offers tactical, asymmetric, long-dwell and deep-reach access to the high-altitude environment for communications and intelligence mission support.
Moving forward, Urban Sky will pioneer new technologies needed to deploy the first ever global constellation of long-duration, persistent stratospheric balloons for commercial use-cases including search & rescue, environmental monitoring, and disaster response.
Urban Sky, founded in 2019, has already commercialized its first major product—the stratospheric Microballoon™ (mHAB), which is a rapidly deployable, navigable and persistent stratospheric balloon. Microballoons can operate at altitudes above 60,000 feet for multiple days, unlocking unprecedented access to the stratosphere—a domain between aircraft and satellites that represents one of the last untapped frontiers for defense and commercial applications.
“Our team has already made huge strides to pioneer humanity’s routine and easy access to the stratosphere and the value locked within it,” said Andrew Antonio, CEO and co-founder of Urban Sky. “This new capital will allow us to accelerate the development of our technology and product portfolio to make an even greater impact on our customers’ missions.”
Urban Sky is already serving a growing set of commercial, civil government, and U.S. defense customers, including NASA, the oil & gas sector, the wildfire monitoring sector, the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force.
“We continue to believe that Urban Sky represents a category-defining business led by an exceptional and uniquely experienced founding team,” said Alex Wong, Partner at New Legacy Ventures and Urban Sky Board Member. “We have a strong conviction that this Series B financing will enable an exponential expansion of valuable data and insights from the stratosphere, where Urban Sky is positioned as an industry leader.”
Of recent note, the company’s existing “Hot Spot” system, which is being developed in partnership with NASA and the Air Force, uses a long-wave infrared (LWIR) imaging payload and satellite connectivity to deliver real-time, high-resolution wildfire monitoring without impacting lower-altitude airborne firefighting operations. Urban Sky flew the system this month over the Palisades Fire in California, demonstrating the ability to produce heat maps with infrared data 100x finer than publicly available satellite data sources like MODIS and VIIRS.
About Urban Sky:
Urban Sky’s products enable routine and easy access to the stratosphere and the value locked within it. The company’s hallmark product – the stratospheric Microballoon™ (mHAB) – offers quick, easy, long-duration, and controllable flight in the stratosphere. And the stratosphere itself offers everything space cannot – rapid access, navigation, extended loitering, and affordability.
