Spaceflight Industries, a Seattle, WA-based space company, secured $18m in Series B financing.
The round, which is expected to raise up to $25m, was led by Mithril Capital Management, with participation from previous investors RRE Venture Capital, Vulcan Capital and Razor’s Edge Ventures. As part of the financing, Ajay Royan, co-founder and managing general partner of Mithril, joined Spaceflight Industries’ Board of Directors.
The company, which has raised $53.5m in total funding, also announced it has acquired Herndon, Virginia-based OpenWhere, Inc., to further enhance and execute on its BlackSky geospatial data platform for satellite imagery.
Founded by aerospace engineer and entrepreneur Jason Andrews, CEO, Spaceflight Industries is advancing the BlackSky geospatial data platform that will deliver near-real-time images of the planet. With a planned constellation of 60 imaging satellites orbiting the Earth, BlackSky has the ability to pass over key zones hourly making the images fresher to provide a more comprehensive story.
Launched in June 2015, BlackSky is on track to deploy six satellites by 2017 and complete the 60-satellite imaging constellation by 2020. The first two Pathfinder satellites will launch this year as key demonstration models for the platform.
BlackSky recently announced an agreement with the United Nations to leverage the information collected from satellite images to enhance global decision making and support country-level initiatives.
Together, the partnership teams United Nations Institute for Training and Research and BlackSky will explore how imaging can be applied to humanitarian relief, human security, climate change adaptation, sustainable water management, territorial management, high-priority peace-keeping missions, monitoring of illegal maritime activity, etc.
In addition, Spaceflight was also awarded a GSA Schedule Contract which enables federal agencies to secure small satellite launch contracts completely online at a pre-negotiated fixed rate.
FinSMEs
21/06/2016