Canadian nanosatellite company Kepler Communications has raised US$60 million in a Series B funding round to support the continued scaling of its on-orbit LEO satellite communications network.
Kepler designs, builds, and operates small sized satellites providing connectivity in space and to mobility markets such as maritime, aviation, and government. With this new funding the company has raised a total of US$90 million since it was founded in 2015.
Kepler already has an existing partnership with maritime antenna manufacturer Cobham SATCOM, having completed Ku-band VSAT connectivity tests on a 65cm SAILOR 600 antenna in late 2020 that delivered bandwidth speeds of 150Mbps.
Satellite production is managed in-house, with Kepler having designed, built, and launched a dozen GEN 1 satellites to date. The company now has 15 satellites in orbit (including demonstration units) serving customers as far north as the North Pole.
Kepler says that it currently has the capacity to produce 10 new satellites per month as it moves towards its ultimate goal of creating a complete constellation of some 140 satellites.
“Building the internet in space is the guiding mission at Kepler. Our next generation of satellites will expand our coverage beyond Earth providing internet connectivity to people, devices, satellites and more in orbit,” said Wen Cheng Chong, CTO and Co-Founder of Kepler.
“There is a growing need to get data generated in space back to earth, and this is a need Kepler is uniquely qualified to address. This is an exciting time for those of us at Kepler as we create an essential part of the infrastructure needed for humanity to look toward a future beyond Earth’s atmosphere.”
