May 11 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria-founded space technology company EnduroSat said it closed a Series A fundraising round worth $10 million (9.1 million euro) which will allow it to expand its satellite operations and boost technology development.
The round was led by UK-based fund manager CEECAT Capital, which is focused on growth markets in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Luxembourg-headquartered EnduroSat said in a press release on Wednesday.
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The space tech company also attracted as backer German venture capital and private equity firm Freigeist Capital, with existing investors also taking part in the fund-raiser.
EnduroSat, which has a 210-strong client portfolio and has delivered over 2,500 satellite modules into orbit, aims to add tens of new space customers within the next three years and has already secured five upcoming missions.
The fresh capital will allow the company to expand its operations into a wider satellite market, including with constellation as a service offerings. New talent hires will also be made, to strengthen the present team of 130 spread over company offices in Luxembourg, Toulouse, Naples, Delaware and Berlin where it set up a presence last month with R&D and system engineering operations.
"EnduroSat is emerging as a leading player in the fast-growing small satellite market, building on the untapped talent pool of highly skilled and educated scientists and engineers in Bulgaria," Anthony Stalker, partner at CEECAT Capital, said.
EnduroSat has its main R&D operations in Bulgaria, where it has opened a new space centre in Sofia spanning 3,200 sq m of office space and 700 sq m of space testing, assembly and qualification laboratories. EnduroSat's new nanosatellite technology testing laboratory in Sofia involved a 4 million levs ($2.2 million/2 million euro) investment, the innovation ministry said last summer.
Founded by CEO Raycho Raychev in 2015, EnduroSat designs, builds and operates nano-satellites for a range of commercial, exploration and science missions. It partners with NASA, SpaceX and the European Space Agency (ESA). Last month, it launched two more satellites into orbit, Taifa-1, the first earth observation satellite for the Kenya Space Agency, and the first-ever satellite under the 5G standard by Sateliot, a Spanish company providing low-earth orbit (LEO) nanosatellites for IoT connectivity.
($ = 0.9149 euro)