TAMPA, Fla. — Skylo has raised $37 million to help nail down the partnerships it needs to enable more smartphones to connect to satellites for texting and other low-bandwidth services.
The funding round was announced Feb. 13, a year after the first Skylo-enabled smartphone was unveiled by Bullitt, the British ruggedized handset maker that has since run into financial issues.
Using standards widely adopted by the cellular industry, Silicon Valley-based Skylo has developed the ground infrastructure that satellites already in geostationary orbit need to connect to mass market devices.
Multiple carriers and original equipment manufacturers are currently testing the narrowband network for texting services, Skylo cofounder and chief product officer Tarun Gupta told SpaceNews.
According to Gupta, devices with a firmware upgrade to integrate with the network could send and receive texts via geostationary satellites with latency between five to 15 seconds.
Skylo announced last month that this standards-based capability is now available across the contiguous United States and Canada in partnership with satellite operators Viasat, Ligado Networks, and TerreStar.
Early-stage investor Innovation Endeavors and the venture capital arm of chipmaker Intel co-led Skylo’s most recent funding round, which comes after the seven-year-old company emerged from stealth in 2020 with $116 million in capital.
Intel Capital managing director David Johnson is joining Skylo’s board as part of the deal.
Skylo intends to use the funds to grow a team of 53 people, strengthen marketing efforts, and expand its geographical footprint to support more partnerships and refine services for consumer, automotive, agriculture, energy, and transportation markets.
“This round accelerates our carrier partnerships and supports all top device makers…
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