Paul Sawers@psawers August 25, 2020 6:00 AM
Kymeta, a company that develops satellite antennas and services to bring connectivity to any vehicle or vessel, has raised $85.2 million in a round of funding led by Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates.
The raise comes as various high-profile companies are developing low earth orbit (LEO) satellite programs — including Amazon, which recently received approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch a network of satellites to deliver high-speed broadband as part of Project Kuiper. Other notable players include Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is building out its Starlink internet service, and the heavily funded OneWeb, which is in the process of exiting bankruptcy with the backing of the U.K. government.
As more satellite-based internet goes online in the coming years, Kymeta is well-positioned to provide the infrastructure to capture this connectivity and deliver it to clients across industries. “When these microsatellite constellations go into space, our antenna will be essential to establishing connectivity from a moving satellite onto a moving vehicle,” Kymeta chief strategy officer Bill Marks told VentureBeat.