Satellite outfit Fleet Space Technologies in big capital raise to boost space ambitions

One of Australia’s space race leaders, Fleet Space Technologies will go on a hiring spree after raising $US26m to shoot more satellites into space.

Flavia Tata Nardini, chief executive and co-founder at Fleet Space Technologies.

Adelaide-based nanosatellite company Fleet Space Technologies will create 70 new jobs and scale up its manufacturing capabilities after raising more than $35m from investors.

The $US26.4m in new money, which comes from a range of existing local and overseas investors including Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon Brookes’ investment firm Grok Ventures, values the company at $US126m.

Co-founder Flavia Tata Nardini said the funds would be used to “underpin significant expansion in Fleet’s manufacturing footprint’’.

Fleet currently has six nanosatellites in space, which were launched to orbit via Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, an Indian space research organisation and two launches from Rocket Lab.

The company’s satellites, which are about the size of a shoebox, are used to communicate with low-power devices on the earth’s surface, allowing wide-scale monitoring at low cost, and in areas where mobile phone networks are not available. Fleet intends to eventually have a constellation of 140 satellites in orbit.

Fleet’s Centauri 4 Satellite. Picture: Supplied.

“As well as vastly reducing unnecessary carbon emissions, this technology will free organisations of billions of dollars of lost value by leveraging the Internet of Things,’’ the company said.

“The $US26.4m investment will increase the size of Fleet Space’s constellation and meet unprecedented demand from more than three million compatible devices registered to join the Fleet Space network.’’

Ms Tata Nardini said the funding would allow the company to rapidly scale up its staff numbers.

“This investment secures the long-term sustainable growth of Fleet Space and is a global endorsement of the power of Australia’s rapidly growing space technology sector,’’ Ms Tata Nardini said.

“Our nanosatellite technology is proven and this capital injection is testament to confidence in our commercial model.

Flavia Tata Nardini and Matt Pearson with the Fleet Space team.

“We are ready to scale and realise the full potential of IoT technology to secure planet-wide coverage of millions of industrial devices.

“This will save billions of dollars for organisations in lost value while preserving precious resources and reducing carbon emissions.”

Artesian Venture Partners, Blackbird Ventures, Grok Ventures and Horizons Ventures have reinvested in the company, while there are “major commitments’’ from new investors including Alumni Ventures, Hostplus, the South Australian Venture Capital Fund (SAVC) and In-Q-Tel, Fleet said.

Blackbird partner Nici Scevak said Fleet’s “grit, ambition and ability’’ had impressed them since day one.

“Flavia and the team have shown incredible progress and we’re excited to back their continued growth with this latest round,’’ Ms Scevak said.

Minister for Innovation and Skills David Pisoni said the capital raising was a “glowing affirmation’’ of the strength of South Australia’s space sector.

“In backing Fleet, the Marshall Liberal Government is supporting the creation of highly-skilled jobs in South Australia and plotting a trajectory towards the Australian Space Agency’s stated aims to build a $12 billion industry by 2030,’’ Mr Pisoni said.

Fleet’s co-founder is Matt Pearson, whose companies Airspeeder and Alauda Aeronautics are currently working on launching a global electric flying car Grand Prix series.

Originally published as Satellite outfit Fleet Space Technologies in big capital raise to boost space ambitions