Satellite operator Kinéis has announced it had reached its capital-raising target of 100 million euros. CLS, CNES, Bpifrance via the fund for Industrial Project Companies (SPI), financed by the ‘Investments for the Future’ Programme and the European Investment Bank, Ifremer, Thales, CELAD, BNP Paribas Développement, HEMERIA and other industrial and financial partners are investing in and supporting Kinéis’ ambition to provide universal satellite connectivity.
The company said in a press release that 25 nanosatellites will be added to complement the service which has been provided by the Argos system to scientific and environmental communities for more than 40 years.
Founded in 2019, Kinéis is a satellite operator and a global connectivity provider. It inherited the forty years of CNES and CLS expertise with the Argos system to develop reliable technology that provides easy access to useful satellite data. In order to make life easier for professionals and individuals and to encourage them to use its product and services, Kinéis locates and connects objects wherever they are on the planet. For its first year of existence, Kinéis achieved a turnover of nearly 5 million euros and already employs 25 people, it said in the release.
Kinéis will also develop its activity in the new markets opened up by the IoT. This new French global connectivity provider, which already has 8 operational satellites, has thus become the first IoT satellite connectivity player to finance its development, from the construction of its constellation to the launch of its 25 nanosatellites, scheduled for 2022, and the development of its ground segment.