Before taking into account how their existence contributes to the expanding problem of space debris, satellites have emerged as a crucial — and occasionally the only — way to transmit interaction and receive data about specific locations around the world. This power position can be hero-worthy but also ripe for abuse.
Now, a U.K. startup called Open Cosmos has raised $50 million to democratize access through a platform it has developed that enables multiple organizations to use one satellite, or more commonly an array of satellites that are and (if they choose) possess the information they acquire with each other. Open Cosmos is developing what it calls “sustainable” low-earth orbit satellites as well as a complete system to handle the data brought together through them.
The company, which was founded with by a trio aerospace engineers from Spain, has only been around since 2015. It first caught the attention of the industry when it was able to develop and launch its initial LEO satellite on a tight budget, which was noteworthy given the amount that capex and opex is typically spent on aerospace projects and the enormous budgets businesses need to obtain access to satellite data. Currently, the startup collaborates with important space organizations as well as businesses like Amazon (particularly AWS), RHEA Group, which specializes in engineering, systems, and security, and Lacuna Space, an agriculture company.
Rafel Jorda Siquier, CEO of Open Cosmos, noted that although their platform, hardware, and systems may conceivably be utilized for a wide range of applications, their primary focus is on climate and energy monitoring.
In an interview, he stated, “We only provide to people who aspire to be successful actors in those sectors. After they re-enter the atmosphere, the satellites gradually deteriorate and disintegrate, leaving virtually no pieces behind.
The investors engaged and the broader backdrop for investing in fields like deep technology and space technology are two additional factors that make the funding noteworthy.
According to data from Crunchbase released at the conclusion of August, funding for companies continues to be limited, and notably in Europe, in the second quarter of the current year, the total amount spent in companies was half that of the previous year.
However, the outlook has been highly mixed for space technology, which has risen on the close of 2022 yet far from the peaks of past years. AI is one prominent, in-demand sector that continues to shine out at the time.
According to one theory, the increase in funding for space technology in the initial half of 2023 when compared to the second half of 2022 was not due to an uptick in interest or an upsurge in the funding environment, but rather to the fact that so many founders put off bringing phases in 2022 that they were forced to do so. And other people have obtained transactions, albeit for less money or at lower valuations.
The $50 million raised by Open Cosmos is a significant step forward for the firm as a whole because it is over seven times what it had previously raised.
This alone can be a sizable area, encompassing data that can be difficult to measure otherwise in areas like unauthorized (or just overlooked) deforestation projects, the production of greenhouse gases, tracking the advancement of polar ice caps and sea levels, in addition to ocean currents — covering roughly 54 climate variables in total. Additionally, satellites are essential to disaster relief activities following natural or man-made calamities. According to study data cited by Open Cosmos, the market for earth’s orbit data would grow and reach $11.3 billion in revenue by 2031.