Kymeta Corp., the Redmond-based satellite antenna venture backed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, says it has closed a $62 million Series D financing round to support a host of new initiatives by land, air and sea.
“With new partnerships, rollout of its smart antenna, customer milestones ahead and growing industry buzz, Kymeta is inventing and delivering a future I can’t wait to live in,” Josh Wolfe, a board member and investor at Lux Capital, said in today’s press release announcing the capital influx.
In addition to Lux and Gates, the latest round’s funders include the Kresge Foundation and Osage University Partners, which have invested in Kymeta previously. There are also investments from “as of yet undisclosed strategic partners,” Kymeta said.
Kymeta already has strategic partners galore for its mTenna flat-panel satellite antenna technology. It has partnered with Sharp on the LCD arrays that go into Kymeta’s system. Kymeta has made a deal with Intelsat to develop next-generation satellite applications, including on-the-road satellite access for automobiles. And just last week, the company announced that it’s working with Panasonic Avionics on a flat-panel system that can link up maritime vessels with satellites more easily than today’s bulky antennas.
So what’s next? Kymeta CEO Nathan Kundtz told GeekWire there’s much more to come.
“We’re seeing these applications come out in all sorts of places that you wouldn’t expect,” he said.
Kundtz said the latest funding round brings the total equity investment in the three-year-old startup to $124 million – and that doesn’t count the business coming from Kymeta’s partners. “As it turns out, this is actually a pretty good business,” Kundtz said.
