On April 9, Sateliot and Keysight Technologies won the ESA and GSMA Foundry Challenge for a blockchain-enabled anomaly detection system for 5G non-terrestrial networks. The award recognized work that sits at the boundary between satellite communications and 6G research: using AI and blockchain to verify signal integrity across hybrid space-terrestrial links. For a company that set out to make standard 5G IoT work from orbit, that award signals how far the ambition has moved.
Jaume Sanpera founded Sateliot in Barcelona with a thesis that satellite connectivity should speak the same protocol as the ground. The company’s constellation is built on the 3GPP Release 17 5G NTN standard, which means an off-the-shelf NB-IoT chipset on a farm sensor or a shipping container can connect to a Sateliot spacecraft the same way it connects to a terrestrial tower. No proprietary modem, no specialized hardware: the phone doesn’t know the difference. Sanpera’s pitch is that this eliminates the integration tax that has historically kept satellite IoT expensive and niche.
He has done this before. Sanpera previously founded Eurona, a satellite services company that became the first Spanish satellite operator to trade publicly. Three decades of telecom ventures gave him the investor credibility to raise at scale: Sateliot closed a €100 million Series C in April 2026 to deploy 16 additional second-generation satellites, with a target constellation of 250 spacecraft. In February 2026, the company signed a partnership with Latvia’s LMT Group and ESA to develop a universal dual-mode IoT module that switches seamlessly between terrestrial and satellite networks. And in November 2025, Sateliot launched an ESA-backed project to test satellite IoT connectivity independent of GPS, a defense-relevant capability that removes a single point of failure from the positioning chain.
The next hardware generation, called Tritó, is designed for 5G NR (New Radio) direct-to-device service from low Earth orbit. Two Tritó satellites, each weighing roughly 160 kilograms, are under contract to fly on PLD Space’s MIURA 5 rocket in 2027: the first 100% Spanish private space mission from satellite manufacturing through launch.
At SmallSat Europe, Sanpera joins a panel titled “The EU Space Law: Harmonizing Rules or a Competitive Moat” alongside space law partners Drew Svor of Sheppard and Dr. Ingo Baumann of BHO Legal, Aldoria Belgium CEO Christine Leurquin, Leiden University’s Tanja Masson, and Alberto Rueda Carazo of the European Space Policy Institute. Five of the six panelists write, interpret, or study space regulation. Sanpera is the one who has to operate under it.
That framing makes his seat on the panel worth watching. The EU Space Law will shape licensing, spectrum coordination, and orbital debris obligations for every European constellation operator. Sanpera brings 250 planned satellites and a business model that depends on regulatory harmony across 27 member states. The lawyers will explain what the law says. He will explain what it costs.
