Spain-backed fund joins FOSSA’s sovereign satellite communications push
Spanish startup FOSSA Systems has raised about $10.5 million to expand its connectivity constellation in a funding round that included a technology investment vehicle backed by Spain’s government. The post Spain-backed fund joins FOSSA’s sovereign satellite communications push ap
Home / Spain-backed fund joins FOSSA’s sovereign satellite communications push
FOSSA staff at the satellite operator's main office in Madrid, Spain. Credit: FOSSA
TAMPA, Fla. — Spanish startup FOSSA Systems has raised about $10.5 million to expand its connectivity constellation in a funding round that included a technology investment vehicle backed by Spain’s government.
The support from the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT) comes a year after the fund injected 14 million euros into Spain’s Sateliot, which is also developing a satellite connectivity network with security and defense applications.
Spanish private investment firm Kibo Ventures led FOSSA’s funding round, the six-year-old venture announced June 24, bringing its total raised to date to nearly 20 million euros.
The proceeds will help fuel FOSSA’s push beyond the tiny picosatellites it once used to connect low-power monitoring devices toward larger cubesats in low Earth orbit, enabling additional sovereign communications and space-based intelligence capabilities.
The company, which joined a NATO innovation accelerator in December to advance its dual-use commercial and government technologies, recently opened an office in Tokyo in its first expansion outside Europe.
“In just a few years, we have gone from being a startup to an internationally present company with 25 satellites launched and technology that responds to real needs of industrial, institutional, and governmental clients,” said Julián Fernández, FOSSA’s CEO and cofounder.
“Our goal is to establish FOSSA as a European benchmark in sovereign space infrastructure.”
FOSSA said its next satellite is scheduled for deployment in the coming weeks, as it ultimately plans a network of 140 spacecraft to connect remote Internet of Things (IoT) devices globally.
The company’s funding round follows a wave of investments this year in European ventures planning to develop sovereign space capabilities, including Austrian propulsion startup Gate Space, which secured 6.3 million euros earlier this month from a European Commission-backed accelerator program.
A fund run by Japan’s SPARX Asset Management also joined FOSSA’s latest funding round, alongside Portuguese investor Indico Capital and a subsidiary of Swiss cybersecurity technology firm WISeKey.
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Jason Rainbow
Jason Rainbow writes about satellite telecom, finance and commercial markets for SpaceNews. He has spent more than a decade covering the global space industry as a business journalist. Previously, he was Group Editor-in-Chief for Finance Information Group,... More by Jason Rainbow
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