Astrocast closes oversubscribed seed financing round

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14.12.2017
Nanosatelites

Astrocast, a Vaud based nanosatellite startup, has announced the oversubscription by $1.1 million Swiss Francs of its seed round funding, bringing the total seed round to $4.1 million. The additional capital was provided by investiere.ch in addition to the current seed investors. The funds will be used in preparation for planned demonstration mission, in which the first two nanosatellites will be launched.

Formerly known as Else SA, Astrocast is currently developing a 64-unit network of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) nanosatellites that will provide cost-effective IoT and machine-to-machine services to global enterprises.

In August, Astrocast raised $3 million in the seed round with Airbus Ventures. Today the startup has received additional $1.1 million from Investiere.ch and comes in addition to the current seed investors including Airbus Ventures, a Geneva-based independent asset manager and multi-family office, as well as numerous additional Swiss- and internationally-based private investors. The seed round will support the company’s business operations through Astrocast’s planned demonstration mission that will launch the first two nanosatellites into LEO in mid-2018.

“As one of the most active Swiss start-up investors, investiere.ch is an ideal partner for Astrocast,” said Fabien Jordan, Co-founder and CEO of Astrocast. “We believe the high caliber investors that joined us through investiere.ch will help us bring our solution to market and enable the monumental efficiencies and cost advantages the Astrocast constellation will drive across so many key global enterprises.”

Astrocast is designed to provide unlimited coverage all over the planet, with no geographical limitations. The constellation’s satellites will collect data, which will be delivered to ground stations, then distributed for access by customers through a secure internet gateway.  Astrocast is expected to serve numerous sectors including smart agriculture, automotive, transportation & logistics, utilities, maritime, oil and gas, among many others.

“Astrocast’s team convinced us with their proven best-in-class expertise in the construction and launch of nanosatellites,” says investiere co-founder Lukas Weber. “Additionally, Astrocast has achieved impressive results and established partnerships with numerous leading players in the field, namely the European Space Agency, the leading satellite communication company Thuraya, as well as Airbus Ventures. The fact that Airbus also led this round further highlights that Astrocast’s immense potential is not going unnoticed in the industry.”

In addition to this seed round, Astrocast has also secured $3 million in grant financing through Swiss grants and the European Space Agency (ESA) Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) program.

 (ran)

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