Led · Equity · Jun 2024

AALTO, an Airbus subsidiary headquartered in Farnborough, manufactures and operates the solar-powered Zephyr High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS). The company focuses on stratospheric connectivity and earth observation services delivered from its HAPS vehicles. It secured a $100m investment from a consortium of Japanese businesses and banks to support commercialization and industrialisation. The funding underpins a strategic alliance to roll out services in Japan and across Asia, with an initial launch in Japan and a global entry-into-service targeted for 2026. Airbus Defence and Space will remain AALTO’s majority shareholder, and the company created a dedicated HAPS Services Business in 2022 to advance its market position. Executives described the transaction as a landmark step to combine technological expertise and connectivity reach to capitalise on sizeable addressable markets in connectivity and earth observation.