Sateliot gears up for offering commercial space-based IoT services

While not explicitly stated in the press release, the assumption is commercial operations will be delivered via an IoT platform to serve customers. The satcomm aims to connect more than eight million devices from companies that have already signed up to the service.

Last week’s launch – dubbed by the company as its ‘Revolution’ mission – saw the deployment of four additional satellites handled by a Space X Falcon 9 rocket on the SpaceX Transporter-11 mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The launch was part of its 5G NB-IoT non terrestrial network (NTN) constellation and the satellites are designed to improve mobile operators’ coverage in an ambitious 100% of our planet.

The company that claims to offer the first Low Earth Orbit (LEO) nanosatellite constellation using 5G narrowband-IoT NTN standards says the technology incorporates enhancements from previous satellites and is said to be ‘the first constellation to implement standard GSMA and 3GPP developments fully on satellites’.

"This launch propels us into a new phase of development," said Jaume Sanpera, CEO and co-founder of Sateliot. "Not only will we begin generating revenue, but we will also position Spain as a global leader in IoT connectivity."

Source: Sateliot

However, the work doesn’t seem to be done yet and more investments are needed. Looking ahead, the company is actively seeking to secure more funding of €30 million, having already raised €25 million since it was first launched in 2018. It is also planning to deploy additional satellites by 2025.

On how to scale fast, last month in an interview Sanpera said the “business model [is] designed from scratch to scale very quickly. All the management committee members have extensive experience creating companies, and this has been one of our obsessions. In the last company we opened in 25 countries, we learned that starting to sell in another country costs a lot of money, and it takes a lot of work to scale in the telecommunications sector. So we opted for a B2B model: our client is the mobile operator, who already has the customers and the end devices”.

According to Sanpera operators in Brazil and the US particularly see the value in NTNIoT but while elsewhere in Europe coverage gaps maybe fewer, rural and highly remote areas remain not-spots for many. With regulators and customers (including enterprises located in remote areas) applying pressure to fill such gaps, Sateliot and its business model seem well positioned and NTNIoT may just be the way forward.