SatixFy

SatixFy Acquisition Finalized: To Be Integrated into MDA’s Satellite Division

Posted on by Techtime

[Above: Assembly of an Aurora satellite at MDA’s manufacturing facility in Montreal]

The sale of SatixFy, headquartered in both Rehovot, Israel and the UK, to Canadian space technology company MDA Space, has been finalized. In the coming days, SatixFy’s shares will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, and all of its employees and operations will be integrated into MDA’s Satellite Systems division. The total value of the deal amounts to approximately $356 million, comprising a $280 million company valuation and $76 million in assumed debt that MDA has committed to cover. This follows a prior acquisition in September 2023, when MDA purchased SatixFy’s UK-based Digital Payload Division for around $40 million.

Founded in 2012 by the late Yoel Gat, SatixFy has invested around $270 million in developing ASIC and RFIC chips for advanced digital satellite communication. Of that, approximately $75 million came from grants from the UK Space Agency. The company’s chips support cutting-edge technologies such as electronically steered multibeam antennas, beamforming, beam-hopping, and software-defined radio (SDR) modems. SatixFy holds 60 registered and pending patents and currently employs about 165 people.

From Crisis to Acquisition

The company faced a major downturn in 2022, with a 50% drop in sales. Although revenues recovered in 2024, SatixFy continued to post net losses and rising debt. In Q1 2025, revenue rose 158% year-over-year to $4.9 million, but the company still reported a net loss of $10.3 million. Notably, only about $900,000 came from product sales—the rest was generated from R&D services and custom projects, reflecting the company’s unique positioning in the market.

Canada’s Rising Space Power

SatixFy’s technology targets the fast-growing Software-Defined Digital Satellite (SDDS) market. A recent report by NSR estimated that by the end of this decade, 89% of all new communication satellites will rely on SDDS technology. The acquisition positions MDA to compete more aggressively in this evolving segment.

Founded in 1969, MDA initially provided robotic systems to NASA. Over the years, the company underwent several transformations, including an unsuccessful attempt to relocate to the U.S. to compete for American government contracts.

Now headquartered in Montreal, MDA employs about 3,400 people. Its 2024 revenue totaled $1.1 billion, and it projects $1.5–1.65 billion in 2025. Roughly 60% of MDA’s revenue comes from MEO/LEO satellite manufacturing, 23% from robotic arms and space systems, and the remaining 17% from analytics services and ground station support for Earth observation satellites.

MDA’s flagship product is the Aurora digital satellite line, which will now directly benefit from SatixFy’s technology. Among other contracts, MDA is currently producing 198 Aurora satellites for Telesat Canada’s Lightspeed program, under a deal valued at approximately $2.4 billion.

SatixFy to sell its Satellite Payload Division

Posted on by Techtime

SatixFy Communications from Rehovot, Israel, announced  a $60 million transaction with Canada based MDA Ltd. The deal is a combination of a $40 million share purchase agreement, selling SatixFy Space Systems UK to MDA as well as an additional $20 million in advanced payments under new commercial agreements which includes the previous $10 million advanced payment made in June to be applied to future orders of chips.

SatixFy will continue to retain all its related ASIC intellectual property and new chips’ development for satellite digital payloads. The transaction is expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2023. Nir Barkan, Acting CEO of SatixFy, said the company has recently took a strategic decision to focus on its core competencies of developing and providing novell chipsets supporting multi beam digital antennas and on board processing for the space industry and advanced ground terminals.

SatixFy develops end-to-end digital satellite communications systems: satellite payloads, user terminals and modems, based on powerful chipsets that it develops in house. It products are based on Software Defined Radio (SDR), Fully Electronically Steered Multi Beam Antennas (ESMA) and Beamforming that support the advanced communications standard DVB-S2X. The deal aimed to support a recovery process after SatixFy’S 2022 revenues had dropped to $10.6 million, compared with $21.7 million in 2021.

SatixFy to Develop a Beam-Hopping Payload for OneWeb

Posted on by Techtime

Above: Artist’s representation of OneWeb future telecommuniction satellite

A group of UK space tech companies, sponsored by Government funding, are developing a new beam-hopping satellite that will allow satellites to allocate capacity momentarily according to demand. By changing the traditional forward link transmission from continuous to time-based burst. The beam-hopping satellite, nicknamed ‘Joey-Sat’, will be able to remotely direct beams to boost coverage in certain locations, such as areas of high usage where the network is struggling to cope with demand. In this revolutionary technology, the traditional color separation (frequency/polarization) is replaced by time division multiplexing over a single frequency carrier.

Led by global satellite communications network OneWeb, the industrial partners have received over £32 million from the UK Space Agency, via the European Space Agency’s Sunrise Programme, for a demonstration satellite due for launch in 2022. OneWeb team up with SatixFy, Celestia UK and Astroscale UK, to demonstrate the technology for its second-generation constellation of satellites planned to be launch-ready in 2025.

The satellite’s pilot beam-hopping payload will be developed by SatixFy, based in Farnborough, UK, and Rehovot, Israel. The user terminal to support this satellite is also being developed by SatixFy, who have been awarded Government funding of approximately £25 million. “We are really excited to be demonstrating new game-changing satellite payload capabilities in space next year,” said Charlie Bloomfield, CEO of SatixFy. “UKSA and ESA support has been fundamental in unlocking these new technologies.”

OneWeb currently has 182 satellites with another launch of 36 satellites scheduled for 27th  May. Designed to provide organisations and governments with global and resilient connectivity services, OneWeb’s network will feature 648 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, global gateways and air, maritime and land user terminals. In late 2021, OneWeb will begin providing commercial services across the Arctic regions and expanding to global coverage in 2022.