TAMPA, Fla. — Isotropic Systems said Sept. 27 it raised more than $37 million to fully fund its flat-panel antennas through to product launch in 2022.
Seraphim Space Investment Trust led the funding round, marking its first major deal since becoming the first publicly listed space technology fund in July.
Isotropic Systems said it has now secured more than $100 million from investors and customers, enabling the British antenna maker to accelerate production to meet the next-generation satellite constellations coming online next year.
The company has expanded its workforce by 40% over the last five months to gear up for incoming satellites in low, medium and geostationary orbits, it said in the Sept. 27 announcement.
The antennas are being designed to simultaneously connect to multiple satellites across multiple orbits, helping operators reduce costs with a single integrated terminal.
“The strong interest we have received from across the industry has given us the confidence to accelerate our growth plans and bring forward the commercialisation of our groundbreaking new terminals, harnessing the potential of the thousands of new satellites being launched across multiple orbits in the year ahead,” Isotropic Systems founder and CEO John Finney said in a statement.
The British government, an investor in OneWeb’s low Earth orbit constellation that is nearing commercial launch, and SES, which expects to start deploying its next-generation O3b mPower satellites toward the end of this year in medium Earth orbit, participated in its latest funding round.
Early-stage investors AEI HorizonX, Firmament Ventures and Promus Ventures — through its Luxembourg-based space investment fund Orbital Ventures — also participated in the funding round.
James Bruegger, a Seraphim managing partner, will join Isotropic Systems’ board following the investment.
Isotropic Systems was awarded an 18.5 million euro ($22.5 million) contract from the UK Space Agency earlier this year to help commercialize its terminals, which will first focus on Ka-band systems being developed operators including SES and Telesat.