Herndon, Virginia-based HawkEye 360 announced today, August 6, it has secured $70 million in Series B funding. The capital will be used for the buildout and launch of the company’s radio frequency (RF) sensing satellites and development of RF analytics products by 2021. New investors in this round include Airbus, Esri and “additional undisclosed partners,” plus existing investors Razor’s Edge Ventures, Allied Minds, and Shield Capital Partners.
“Receiving an investment of this size, especially for a pioneering space start-up, reaffirms the value investors place on the advanced capabilities of our satellites and the highly innovative RF data analytic products we are delivering to customers,” said John Serafini, Chief Executive Officer, HawkEye 360. “This financing not only capitalizes the development of our full constellation, but also provides exceptional access to European markets through our new investor and distribution partner, Airbus. We are honored to have such a phenomenal group of investors supporting our work, our team, and our vision for the future of space-based RF analytics.”
HawkEye 360 has a trio of formation flying satellites in orbit collecting RF data and has a second cluster under construction for launch in early 2020. The additional financing is expected to support the development and launch of four additional clusters, creating a fully operational constellation of 18 satellites with rapid global revisit.
Since its founding in 2015, HawkEye 360 has raised over $100 million in funding. Its first product, RFGeo, was launched in April of this year. RFGeo identifies and locations the position of a broad range of RF emitters, including X-band navigation radars, VHF radios, satellite terminals and emergency rescue beacons. Such geospatial data reveals patterns of activity and provides insights for maritime, defense, telecommunications and crisis response applications. Today’s funding will also be used to bring new RF analytical products to market more quickly.
Airbus joins Raytheon as the second major defense contractor investing in HawkEye 360, unsurprising given the tactical and strategic utility of a RF-collecting constellation mapping radars and radios with rapid updates.
“We are joining the funding of HawkEye 360 at an important time in their growth,” said “Analytics from space is a game-changer for the industry and HawkEye 360’s satellite data are highly complementary to Airbus’ global portfolio of optical and synthetic aperture radar satellites,” Evert Dudok, Head of Communications, Intelligence and Security & Member of the Executive Committee at Airbus Defense and Space. “…{W]e believe our investment will support accelerating their plans and be of mutual business benefit to our companies in the future
