Space infrastructure firm Loft Orbital has raised $170 million in Series C funding co-led by Tikehau Capital and Axial Partners. Notably, the quantity of the Series C financing is bigger than the mixed $160 million the corporate has raised since its 2017 inception.
Loft Orbital declined to disclose its valuation. According to PitchBook, its post-money valuation on the time of its final increase in 2021 — a $130 million Series B spherical — was $550 million.
Bpifrance, Foundation Capital, Temasek, and Uncork Capital additionally participated, which brings the corporate’s whole raised over its lifetime to $330 million.
Loft additionally declined to disclose laborious income figures however co-founder and COO Alex Greenberg advised TechCrunch that the corporate has grown income by 100% two years in a row.
“We’ve achieved over $500 million of bookings on solely $160 million of capital raised previous to this Series C. In an business identified for its capital depth, we’re pleased with our capital effectivity,” he added. “Right now we’re actually centered on profitability and getting the enterprise to sustainability.”
The firm has bought over 30 satellites and its clients embody NASA, Microsoft, Anduril, and BAE Systems, amongst others. In whole, it says it has deployed over 25 buyer missions throughout its 5 satellites launched to this point.
When it began in January 2017, the corporate’s self-described mission was to “make it easy for organizations to deploy and function missions in area.” In a nutshell, Loft goals to deal with the method of deploying and working buyer missions as a service.
It buys customary satellites from distributors like Airbus and LeoStella and outfits them with payloads from clients, saving them the trouble of buying, working, and managing their very own {hardware} and floor section community.
“Unlike others within the business, we’re not designing satellites for particular missions — we’re configuring present parts of our satellite tv for pc platform,” Greenberg mentioned. “Think of it like Lego constructing blocks.”
It additionally presents “digital missions,” permitting its clients to deploy their software program apps onto a Loft satellite tv for pc to leverage on-board sensors and compute nodes, analyze information as it’s being collected, and run a complete vary of use circumstances.
Loft has been busy as of late. The startup final August introduced a three way partnership with Abu Dhabi-based Marlan Space that raised over $100 million from a holding firm affiliated with an Emirati royal household to develop the area’s home satellite tv for pc manufacturing capabilities.
It additionally says it has launched YAM-6, a satellite tv for pc devoted to operating AI in area.
Greenberg mentioned Loft will use its new capital in two methods. It plans to scale from launching a handful of satellites per yr to ten-plus yearly. It additionally desires to increase its digital missions, increase its AI enterprise the place clients can create an AI system in their very own cloud (wildfire detection as an example), and deploy it onto a Loft satellite tv for pc. And he hopes to develop an ecosystem of AI utility companions.
