Sateliot gets €30m from EIB to expand NB-IoT satellites – as first services go live

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted a €30 million loan to Barcelona-based startup Sateliot to co-finance the rollout of its constellation of over 100 low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, geared to provide non-terrestrial NB-IoT extensions for low-power IoT applications in remote environments. A statement said the provision will “strengthen the European New Space ecosystem”, and offer a way to connect IoT sensors in remote global regions, notably for agriculture and livestock management, fisheries and maritime activities, management of protected areas, fire control and monitoring, and environmental applications.

It is the EIB’s first venture debt operation in the satellite communications market (and its “first with a Spanish space company”, said the statement). The EIB loan is guaranteed by InvestEU, the flagship European Union (EU) scheme to mobilise €372 billion of public and private sector investment to support EU policy goals from 2021 to 2027. The EU has historic flagship space programmes like Copernicus and Galileo that provide Europe with autonomous space capabilities. The European Investment Fund (EIF) has launched several initiatives such as the InnovFin Space Equity Pilot and CASSINI to back venture capital funds investing in early-stage European space companies.

The EIB is ramping up its venture debt and scale-up financing support to space companies, including (with support from the European Commission) with such venture debt loans. Since 2020, it has become a key global financier of new space technologies in the EU, including recent funding worth €90 million for the likes of Spire Global, D-Orbit, EnduroSat, Kayrros, Gomspace and LeafSpace. It is working with the European Commission to provide advisory services to ‘new space’ companies, too.

Sateliot, with a target to achieve revenues of €1 billion by 2030, is building an NB-IoT satellite constellation based on Release 17 specifications in the 5G NR cellular standard. It wants to wholesale satellite NB-IoT as a roaming extension for terrestrial operators. It issued a press notice in August to declare that the launch of four new LEO nanosatellites on a SpaceX mission sets it on the path to a properly-available IoT service. The firm said customers have already “contracted” it to connect eight million devices. The firm has a virtualized cloud-native 5G core for its NB-IoT satellite service, courtesy of a deal with AWS, signed towards the back-end of 2022. 

Telefonica has been trialling the service. It is also working with Swedish power grid firm Sentrisense to use satellite IoT service for electric grid sensors. It also has a notable deal in the bag with freight software and analytics company t42 to deploy “thousands of 5G-IoT sensors” in shipping containers for “more than 50 logistics partners across over 50 countries”. A press statement at the end of last year said the shipping industry could save “up to $47 billion annually” by connecting unconnected containers on the high seas. Last week, UK-based IoT MVNO Eseye signed with Sateliot to avail its customers of satellite NB-IoT extension to its terrestrial IoT roaming services.

Jaume Sanpera, co-founder and chief executive at Sateliot, said: “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.”

Robert de Groot, vice president at EIB, said: “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.”