Spire receives $40 million in new funding, eyes going public

Spire Global uses a constellation of nano-satellites and a global ground station network to provide 24/7 real-time monitoring of every point on Earth. The company gathers and processes data collected from this monitoring to create “the most advanced maritime, aviation and weather tracking in the world.” The company launched its 100th satellite earlier this year and established the world’s first commercial weather satellite constellation. The company also owns and operates the second-largest constellation of satellites and ground stations.

“We see increasing global demand for satellite-based, Earth-observation data and analysis with respect to weather and trade. Spire is one of a select group of new companies that are now fully funded to meet this demand,” said chief operating officer and managing partner Will Porteous of RRE Capital, one of Spire’s existing investors.

Spire’s technology allows it to capture atmospheric data by analyzing radio waves and its nano-satellites stay in low earth orbit, allowing it to capture data as its sensors pass the same locations on Earth hundreds of times a day. Imaging from space would require larger satellites with much larger lenses.     

Spire has key partnerships with many global companies in the weather, maritime and aviation sectors including NASA and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN).

“We want to help deliver the world’s most valuable weather forecast, contributing to the incredible partnership across the global weather enterprise. Helping customers across all industries and governments tackle ever more frequent and extreme weather events in this era of climate change, that’s what is driving us every day,” said Spire’s director of weather, Dr. Alexander “Sandy” MacDonald.

The latest round of funding takes the company to more than $160 million raised, with the plan of going public in two years according to CNBC.