Spire builds small, radio-equipped satellites using off-the-shelf, cell-phone‑like components to listen for signals from ships and atmospheric sensors rather than taking images. The company sells maritime tracking data and is expanding into weather data, positioning itself to fill gaps from aging government weather satellites. Spire has launched four satellites (its first in June 2013) and expects 20 in orbit by year-end and 100 by 2017. It employs 57 people and has raised roughly $80 million to date. The team plans to use a range of launch providers (Orbital Science, SpaceX, Soyuz and talks with Virgin Galactic and Rocket Lab) to grow its constellation. Management has discussed further applications such as anti‑poaching and locating kidnapped children using small beacon sensors picked up by its satellites. Spire builds and operates a network of small form-factor satellites to deliver high-frequency, high-accuracy data from any point on Earth to customers in areas such as global trade, weather, shipping, supply chain, illegal fishing and maritime domain awareness. The company emphasizes using relatively inexpensive, off-the-shelf technologies and rapid iteration cycles to accelerate development and lower costs. Spire has deployed four satellites and plans to scale to more than 50 in the near future. It has quadrupled headcount since launch and expanded its customer base across North America, Europe and Asia, prompting a second office in Singapore. Financially, Spire recently raised a $25 million Series A and has raised $29 million in total to date. The new capital is intended to extend its satellite network and data infrastructure and to grow the team to meet customer demand.

Total raised

$65M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Jun 2015