{"id":18162,"date":"2019-01-26T19:44:18","date_gmt":"2019-01-26T11:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/after-satellite-flap-swarm-technologies-raises-25m-for-space-based-iot-network\/"},"modified":"2019-01-26T19:44:18","modified_gmt":"2019-01-26T11:44:18","slug":"after-satellite-flap-swarm-technologies-raises-25m-for-space-based-iot-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/after-satellite-flap-swarm-technologies-raises-25m-for-space-based-iot-network\/","title":{"rendered":"After satellite flap, Swarm Technologies raises $25M for space-based IoT network"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_476392\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-476392\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-476392 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/190126-swarm-630x449.jpeg\" alt=\"Ben Longmier and Sara Spangelo\" width=\"630\" height=\"449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/190126-swarm-630x449.jpeg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/190126-swarm-768x548.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/190126-swarm-1260x899.jpeg 1260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-476392\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Swarm Technologies was founded by chief technology officer Ben Longmier and CEO Sara Spangelo, who is holding one of the company\u2019s super-miniaturized SpaceBEE satellites. (Swarm Technologies Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A year after making a $900,000 mistake, Swarm Technologies is raking in $25 million in a funding round aimed at getting a constellation of sandwich-sized satellites up and running for the Internet of Things.<\/p>\n<p>Getting the constellation in orbit could open up a big frontier for tiny satellites within the next year and a half.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re just excited to get launched and get our network up there and start offering global, affordable internet,\u201d said Swarm CEO Sara Spangelo, a veteran of NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Alphabet\u2019s X \u201cmoonshot factory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The satellites, known as SpaceBEEs, are so small that the Federal Communications Commission turned down the Silicon Valley startup\u2019s application for a launch license last January. The mission went ahead anyway&nbsp;\u2014 largely because Seattle-based Spaceflight, the company that was taking care of the logistics for liftoff aboard an Indian PSLV rocket, didn\u2019t know Swarm\u2019s application had been rejected.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Swarm agreed to pay the FCC\u2019s hefty fine, submit to closer oversight for the next three years and draw up a detailed plan for compliance with the agency\u2019s rules. \u201cIt\u2019s probably sufficient to say we take all compliance issues very seriously,\u201d Spangelo told GeekWire on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The FCC swatted down Swarm\u2019s initial application because regulators worried that the 4-by-4-by-1-inch SpaceBEEs (with BEE standing for Basic Electronic Element) couldn\u2019t be tracked by authorities. If that were the case, it would heighten the risk of collision and damage to unsuspecting spacecraft in low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n<p>Swarm had equipped its SpaceBEEs with radar reflectors to make them more detectable, and ran trackability tests in orbit. The fact that the tests proceeded even though the satellites were unlicensed initially added to the FCC\u2019s ire. But Spangelo said the resulting radar readings, picked up by NORAD and a&nbsp;space tracking startup called LeoLabs, could persuade the FCC to&nbsp;approve future SpaceBEEs.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"LeoLabs   Tracking Swarm Technologies SpaceBEEs\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VSSRC175sz8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of that data is super-supportive toward the case that they\u2019re trackable,\u201d Spangelo said. \u201cRecently we\u2019ve had some great meetings with the FCC, and we\u2019ve gotten positive indications that that argument is sound.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To advance the program while Swarm resolves its SpaceBEE issues, the company worked with Spaceflight to get three 4-by-4-by-4-inch satellites \u2014 as big as a tissue box rather than a sandwich \u2014 launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket last month.<\/p>\n<p>Spangelo is hoping that the sandwich-sized nanosatellites will be cleared for liftoff in time for Swarm\u2019s next launch, tentatively planned for sometime in the spring. Because of delays caused by the partial government shutdown, \u201cwe\u2019re unclear on the status, so I can\u2019t really comment on it much more than that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Swarm\u2019s plan calls for putting 150 SpaceBEEs into low Earth orbit within the next 18 months to provide round-the-world data connectivity. \u201cEven with one or five or 30 satellites, we can start to offer services, particularly for applications that don\u2019t constantly need a satellite overhead,\u201d Spangelo said.<\/p>\n<p>The company is already providing connected-car services on an experimental basis for Autonomic and Ford, and communications support for SweetSense\u2019s satellite-based infrastructure sensor network. Spangelo said Swarm is working on pilot projects with dozens of other, undisclosed ventures as well.<\/p>\n<p>In order to go commercial and start charging for services, Swarm will need to win the appropriate licenses from the FCC. But the promise has been great enough to attract big-name backers for the company\u2019s $25 million Series A financing round.<\/p>\n<p>The round was led by Craft Ventures and Sky Dayton, the founder of EarthLink and Boingo, with participation from Social Capital, 4DX Ventures and NJF Capital.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<span class=\"il\">Swarm<\/span> is turning the satellite industry on its head,\u201d Dayton said in a news release.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOthers continue to focus on high bandwidth networks that are very expensive, power-hungry, difficult to integrate, and will take years and billions of dollars to bring online,\u201d he said. \u201c<span class=\"il\">Swarm<\/span> has developed something entirely new: a low-bandwidth, latency-tolerant network that is extremely inexpensive, low-power and very easy to integrate for things that need to be connected anywhere in the world \u2014 and <span class=\"il\">Swarm<\/span> is doing it in a tenth the time of a traditional satellite network build.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Swarm chief technology officer Ben Longmier, who co-founded the company with Spangelo in 2016, said \u201cwe\u2019re just getting started.\u201d The freshly raised investments will go toward building more satellites, laying the regulatory groundwork for the constellation, paying for future launches and expanding the company\u2019s team from 11 people to around 25 to 30 by the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously funding is pretty important,\u201d Spangelo said.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, Swarm aims to make IoT data available on a global scale for connected cars, agricultural crop sensors, maritime shipping containers and smart meters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do have aspirations of also doing direct-to-consumer&nbsp;\u2014 eventually being able to purchase a Swarm device and a Swarm data service, so that you could get one our little trackers and be able to use that when you\u2019re out hiking or sailing in the middle of nowhere with no cell connectivity, to relay messages back to the internet,\u201d Spangelo said. \u201cBut that\u2019s more of our longer-term vision. We\u2019re very focused on the IoT, device-to-device enterprise applications, particularly in the next six to 12 months.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Swarm Technologies was founded by chief technology officer Ben Longmier and CEO Sara Spangelo, who is holding one of the company\u2019s super-miniaturized SpaceBEE satellites. (Swarm Technologies Photo) A year after making a $900,000 mistake, Swarm Technologies is raking in $25 million in a funding round aimed at getting a constellation of sandwich-sized satellites up and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1294,51,20,4839],"class_list":["post-18162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internet-of-things","tag-iot","tag-satellite","tag-swarm-technologies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}