Leaf Space will use the fresh funds to further develop its ground segment services for microsatellite operators in the ‘NewSpace’ economy and globally scale up its business.
Leaf Space has announced a Series A financing of round €5m, bringing its total funding to €10m. A contribution of €2m came from Primo Space, the other €3m of investment were contributed between Whysol Investments.
Leaf Space will use the fresh funds to further develop its ground segment services for microsatellite operators in the ‘NewSpace’ economy and globally scale up its business. During the first trimester of 2021, the company plans to grow its operational ground stations from eight to 11 by deploying and activating stations in Sri Lanka, Canada and Australia. At the end of 2021, the company expects to have a total of 15 operational ground stations for its multi-customer Leaf Line service.
Other developments in 2021 will include implementing services to further improve and simplify the operational use for customers and covering almost all of the protocols and communications schemes currently in use in the microsatellite market.
Speaking about the achievement, Jonata Puglia, CEO and co-founder of Leaf Space said: “This is a fantastic achievement for Leaf Space. In a short space of time, Leaf Space has become an industry name and a key player in the NewSpace economy. It has shown to be capable of providing excellent ground segment services to satellite operators, from launch and early orbit phase (LEOP) all the way to decommissioning, but also in supporting launch vehicle operators. Having concluded this successful investment round shows the relative resilience of the sector, despite the ongoing pandemic, and allows the company to continue with its strong and swift development plan.
“Of course, we expect to see future challenges in the space industry as well as extraordinary projects with our customers, collaborators and partners, and we are proud to have Primo Space and our other investors on-board, who believe in our ambitious plans.”
The initial funding secured last spring allowed Leaf Space to kick-start the expansion of its infrastructure and service portfolio in 2020 with new ground stations in New Zealand, the Azores, North America and Bulgaria, in addition to extending the hardware and infrastructure already present in Spain and Italy. This expansion already enabled new missions and applications in the microsatellite sector.
Giorgio Minola, General Partner at Primo Space added: “We believe that the ground segment is one of the most interesting sectors in the space economy and Leaf Space has already demonstrated its abilities to successfully operate in this arena. The funding provided to the company is aimed at enabling a significant global scale up of its service capabilities.”
