SAS raises $12 million for Constellation of Nano Satellites

21 February, 2019

The UK-Israeli company is building a constellation of 200 Nano Satellites for communications and Emergency services to the equatorial belt

Sky and Space Global has received signed binding commitments for $12 million in a two-tranche share placement as part of its $15 million fundraising effort. The funds are to be used to finance the launching of the first batch of the company’s Pearls network, based on a constellation of 200 nano-satellites. The launch with Virgin Orbit is due to take place by mid-2019 and is the initial stage of the company’s future network of 200 nano-satellites to provide affordable voice, data, instant messaging, M2M and IoT communications to the equatorial belt.

Nano-Satellites are fully operational satellites with a mass of less than 10kg. Due to miniaturization of technology Nano-Satellites are capable to provide accurate altitude and orbit control and communication services. Since the first Nano-Satellite launch in 2003 they became the most popular type of satellites in space for diverse commercial uses. The low mass and high capabilities of Nano-Satellites make them an affordable building blocks for constellations.

SAS services will also bring to the equatorial region emergency services such as Search and Rescue, Disaster Management, Emergency Response, Security Alarms and Recreational Tracking, in addition to conventional services including cellphone applications, offshore communications, smart farming, interactive TV, airplane, vessel and animal tracking, water and electric metering, grid monitoring, and ATM. The company announced a plan to conduct a fully underwritten priority offer (PO) in order to raise a further $3 million.

Sky and Space Global was founded by three veterans of the Israeli Space Industry: Meir Moalem the Managing Director and CEO; Meidad Pariente, CTO, and Yonatan Sharma, VP Business Development. Moalem is a former jet fighter pilot of the IAF and brings over 20 years of experience in project management, including the MEIDEX experiment on Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-107) and Israel’s satellite projects such as Ofeq, Tecsar and more.

Meidad was the Chief systems engineer of the communication satellite AMOS-3, successfully launched in 2008, and special engineering advisor for AMOS-5, launched in 2011. He was the chief systems engineer of VENUS project, an Israeli-French hyperspectral satellite.

The company is based in in the UK and Israel, and is listed on the Australian ASX stock exchange. In June 2017 SAS successfully launched into space its first three nano-satellites, the ‘3 Diamonds’.

“We have undertaken this round of financing at a crucial time for the company, as we prepare to launch our first batch of Pearls nano-satellites into space,” said Meir Moalem, Sky and Space Global CEO. SAS chairman Michael Malone, managing director and CEO Meir Moalem and other directors will be investing $710,000 in the placement, subject to shareholder approval.

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