Planetary Resources develops asteroid-prospecting systems intended to identify and enable the extraction of resources from asteroids. The company plans a 2020 launch of an asteroid-prospecting system. Luxembourg has taken an equity stake, with the Grand Duchy directly investing €12 million and public investment bank SNCI contributing €13 million, totaling €25 million (about US$27.7M). That €25M will join roughly $21 million the company raised in May. Luxembourg and Planetary Resources signed an agreement in June that preceded the investment, and officials framed the country becoming a shareholder as sealing a longer-term partnership. Luxembourg officials also have an agreement with competitor Deep Space Industries, though details of any funding there have not been disclosed. Planetary Resources operates Ceres, an advanced Earth-observation business built around a commercial infrared and hyperspectral sensor platform integrated onto the company's Arkyd spacecraft. Ceres provides on-demand Earth intelligence by measuring thermographic properties and detecting material composition, offering higher spectral resolution than typical satellite imagery. The imaging technology is deployed as a constellation of 10 low-Earth-orbit satellites to deliver global monitoring for industries including agriculture, oil & gas, water quality, financial intelligence and forestry. The company is testing the sensor platform and plans to demonstrate the technology with an upcoming Arkyd 6 launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 to validate the thermographic sensor and supporting technologies. Planetary Resources intends to use the Series A capital to deploy and operate the Ceres service. The company was founded in 2009 by Eric Anderson and Dr. Peter H. Diamandis and is led by president and CEO Chris Lewicki. Planetary Resources develops the ARKYD orbiting telescopes and plans a fleet of autonomous drones to locate and eventually mine raw materials (for example, water and platinum) from asteroids. Founded in 2009, the team has combined product development with public crowdfunding and private backers. The company ran a Kickstarter for ARKYD access time that surpassed its $1 million goal with days remaining and aimed to get ARKYD into orbit in 2015. 3D Systems has invested and will fabricate components for the ARKYD telescopes. Planetary Resources counts high-profile tech figures among its backers and continues to pursue hardware development and fundraising in parallel. The company has not disclosed detailed financial terms of the reported investment.

Total raised

$49M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Nov 2016