Kepler Communications Raises $5 Million for Internet of Things CubeSats

 

11 August 2016

Kepler Communications announces today it has raised $5 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by Manhattan-based IA Ventures – known for their investment in Digital Ocean and X.ai. Other investors include Liquid 2 Ventures (Joe Montana’s investment vehicle), Techstars, Globalive Capital, BDC, and a number of high profile angel investors.

“IA Ventures invested in Kepler because we believe this infrastructure is needed to advance our society that continues to stretch the carrying capacity of the Earth,” Brad Gillespie, Partner at IA Ventures.

“IA Ventures invested in Kepler because we believe this infrastructure is needed to advance our society that continues to stretch the carrying capacity of the Earth,” Brad Gillespie, Partner at IA Ventures.

Toronto-based Kepler is building a network of “CubeSats” – satellites roughly the size of a loaf of bread – to relay real-time messages sent by machines, acting as a service provider for IoT devices (Internet of Things) both on the earth’s surface and in-orbit. “The vision is to empower businesses with real-time actionable information tomorrow where today this data is often hours delayed,” says Mina Mitry, founder and CEO of Kepler.

Kepler takes a unique approach using small, replaceable, low-cost satellites following a shift in the industry towards agile development. Where many companies, like Spire and Planet, are moving away from large monolithic satellites that would operate for 7-10 years to many small spacecraft that are replaced every 2-3 years.

“This approach aligns well with our strategy to incrementally deploy infrastructure to meet customer demand and learn along the way,” Mr. Mitry says. Kepler will use the new funding to launch satellites and deploy an initial service as early as the second half of 2017.