Highlights:
Sateliot is a Spanish startup constructing a community of over 100 small satellites with world attain that can join units in distant, beforehand unserved areas.
That is the EIB’s first enterprise debt operation with a Spanish area firm and within the section of satellite tv for pc communications.
The financing is a part of the help the EIB is offering to European startups to assist them develop cutting-edge area applied sciences and options.
The operation is backed by the InvestEU programme to mobilise private and non-private sector funds in help of EU coverage targets.
The European Funding Financial institution (EIB) has signed a €30 million mortgage with Spanish firm Sateliot to co-finance the rollout of its constellation of over 100 LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites, which is able to present Web of Issues (IoT) connectivity worldwide.
The Barcelona-based startup is a pioneer in satellite tv for pc communications and within the European “New Space” trade, the place the non-public sector drives area exploration and commercialisation. The corporate is rolling out a community of satellites that act like cell telecom towers in low Earth orbit, offering 5G narrowband web of issues (5G-NB-IoT) connectivity to over 8 million units in rural, oceanic, and different distant areas. Conventional cell operators will have the ability to use this service to develop the protection of their ground-based IoT networks to beforehand unserved areas.
The EIB-financed undertaking will bolster the European Union’s area connectivity and provide low-cost, IoT-based asset monitoring companies to be used in sectors akin to agriculture, livestock administration, fisheries and different maritime actions, the administration of protected areas, fireplace management and monitoring, and environmental functions amongst others.
“This loan shows the EIB’s commitment to innovation and development in the European space sector, thereby supporting the digital transition and contributing to the European Union’s strategic autonomy in areas of space and global connectivity in the context of the EIB Strategic European Security Initiative,” stated EIB Vice-President, Robert de Groot.
This operation will assist strengthen the European New Area ecosystem, rushing up the digital transition by connecting hundreds of thousands of beforehand disconnected units in distant areas the place ground-based IoT connections don’t attain. It would additionally present connectivity for safety functions akin to reconnaissance and surveillance, border safety and management, and safety infrastructure monitoring. The EIB mortgage is assured by InvestEU, the flagship EU programme to mobilise over €372 billion of further private and non-private sector funding to help EU coverage targets from 2021 to 2027.
“This EIB backing—together with the support that Sateliot has already received from major investor groups and other banks and institutions—gives a huge boost to our development. This capital will be used to move forward with the next stage of our constellation and comes in addition to the income we will begin to receive in 2025 when the four satellites we already have in orbit enter commercial service,” added Sateliot CEO and Co-founder Jaume Sanpera.
The EIB Group and financing the European area trade
The European Union already has historic flagship area programmes like Copernicus and Galileo that present Europe with autonomous area capabilities. Additionally it is supporting the European New Area trade through numerous financing autos. The European Funding Fund (EIF) has launched a number of initiatives such because the InnovFin Area Fairness Pilot and CASSINI to again enterprise capital funds investing in early-stage European area firms. Moreover, the EIB is presently ramping up its enterprise debt and scale-up financing help to extremely progressive area firms. With help from the European Fee, the EIB additionally affords enterprise debt loans to advanced-stage area firms. Since 2020, the Financial institution has thus develop into a key world financier of recent area applied sciences within the European Union, together with the current financing totalling €90 million for European New Area leaders like Spire International, D-Orbit, EnduroSat, Kayrros, Gomspace, and LeafSpace.
The Sateliot financing, benefitting from European Fee thematic help underneath the InvestEU, is the newest addition to the EIB’s diversified New Area portfolio as the primary New Area firm financed with enterprise debt in Spain and the primary within the communication section ever. Past financing, the EIB Group additionally works with the European Fee to supply advisory companies (EIB Advisory) to New Area firms. EIB Advisory put collectively a market evaluation on the European area sector and launched the Area Finance Lab discussion board to attach area firms with buyers. In 2022, the EIB contributed to the primary report on investments in world navigation satellite tv for pc programs, collectively printed with the European Union Company for the Area Programme (EUSPA). Lastly, in 2024, the EIB, the European Area Company (ESA), and the European Fee signed an settlement to strengthen their cooperation within the sector.
The operation contributes additionally to the EIB Strategic European Safety Initiative (SESI). Extra data about SESI is out there right here.
