Kineis Raises USD 110.5 Million to Launch New Constellation of 25 CubeSats

Aerospace and Defense Review | Friday, February 07, 2020

The Argos system collects one-way data from maritime beacons, including humidity, temperature, and sea level. However, it is limited in terms of throughput and the kinds of services it can provide

FREMONT, CA: Occitanie-based Internet of Things startup Kinéis raised USD 110.5 million from private and public investors to fund its ambition of providing universal satellite connectivity by launching a constellation of 25 CubeSats by 2022. The funding round was led by Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS), a French maritime and environmental monitoring company, with participation from the French space agency CNES, the French National Institute for Ocean Science (Ifremer), and several others. The round was also participated by French industrial partners Thales Group, CubeSat builder Hemeria and software engineering company Celad.

"We are very proud to have reached this major milestone. With the funds needed to launch our constellation, we are now free to focus entirely on satellite manufacturing and commercial deployment," said Alexandre Tisserant, President of Kinéis. "The financing was all equity-based and fully funds the buildout of the company's constellation, including manufacturing, launch, ground infrastructure, and insurance. The money will also allow Kinéis to grow to 45 people from 25 by the end of the year," he added.

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Until date, Kinéis has been running on revenue from Argos, a system of seven hosted payloads and one experimental smallsat which it inherited from CLS last year, and funds which CLS pre-committed as part of the investment round. The Argos system collects one-way data from maritime beacons, including humidity, temperature, and sea level. However, it is limited in terms of throughput and the kinds of services it can provide. Kinéis's new constellation will consist of a more powerful CubeSat that can replace Argos with a two-way connectivity system that can link devices in multiple industries.

"We are going from an eight-satellite constellation that is working today with limited capacity to full capacity with a performance of a new constellation starting 2022,” said Tisserant. “This is really what will help us to scale and to go from 20,000 beacons today to millions, we hope, in several years.”

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