Exclusive-Wozniak’s space company Privateer buys Orbital Insight and raises $56.5 million

By Joey Roulette

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak’s spatial data startup Privateer has raised $56.5 million and also acquired analytics firm Orbital Insight, a merger that will add mapping and intelligence services to its data offerings Privateer’s space assets, Privateer’s CEO told Reuters.

Privateer, founded in 2021 to help satellite operators navigate Earth’s increasingly busy orbit, closed its Series A funding round in April, led by space-focused venture capital firm Aero X Ventures with other investors, including Luxe Capital, Boca, Starburst and Winklevoss. twins. The news should be announced this Monday.

Orbital’s TerraScope Earth observation platform, designed to be a vast search engine based on recently captured satellite images from other companies, will be combined with Privateer’s satellite tracking software.

The new financing allowed Privateer to close a deal to buy Palo Alto-based Orbital Insight on April 14, Privateer CEO Alex Fielding said. Orbital, which combines multiple data sources such as cell phone locations and satellite imagery to offer intelligence to customers, was backed by Sequoia and Google Ventures.

Fielding declined to disclose the value of the combined entity or the price of Orbital Insight.

The acquisition of Privateer will expand its offerings after revenue prospects in the space situational awareness (SSA) market were limited, Fielding said. SSA is a nascent sector of the space industry, similar to air traffic control, but for satellites in space. Such services are considered crucial for satellite navigation, as there are no international standards to control an increasing amount of space traffic.

“It’s not really a market, it’s actually a group of companies that have provided a stopgap for the government not providing a service for space traffic management,” Fielding said in an interview last week.

Privateer is offering its SSA services to satellite imaging companies to help them hit targets on Earth and maneuver their satellites around space debris in exchange for hordes of satellite images ordered by their customers that could contribute to a near real-time mapping and intelligence service.

These images will be funneled into a new platform that Fielding hopes to launch publicly in the next six months or so.

“If you take the image once, you can sell it a million times over, for a fraction of the purchase price,” said Fielding, referring to the satellite imaging companies Privateer is working with to integrate its data. .

(Reporting by Joey Roulette in Washington; Editing by Chris Sanders and Matthew Lewis)