Startup Skylo raises $37 million from Intel, BMW and Samsung

Silicon Valley space startup Skylo Technologies raised funding from the corporate venture arms of Intel, BMW and Samsung, as the company aims to close the gap between terrestrial and satellite communications.

Skylo raised $37 million through a capital round, the company told CNBC, which was led by Intel Capital and Innovation Endeavors and joined by BMW i Ventures, Next47, Samsung Catalyst Fund and Seraphim Space. The raise brings Skylo's total equity fundraising to $153 million, with previous investors including SoftBank and DCM.

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Mountain View, California, the company pursues the nascent “direct-to-device,” or D2D, satellite communications market.

But rather than building next-generation satellites, Skylo aims to provide a network to connect new devices (including low-bandwidth Internet of Things hardware and high-bandwidth smartphones) via existing satellites, but without antennas. additional equipment or bulky equipment.

“We want ubiquitous connectivity. We just don't want additional hardware, because that adds complexity,” Skylo CEO Parth Trivedi told CNBC.

Trivedi said he believes his company can bring the telecom industry's standards-based networks into the “walled garden” of proprietary satellite technology. His company is working to build a software infrastructure to certify chips and devices capable of connecting to satellites in orbit.

In that way, Trivedi sees Skylo operating as a “roaming partner” for existing cellular networks, effectively validating and linking devices made by other connectivity players.

“They will find that this approach is very, very scalable, because operators don't have to change their behavior, users don't have to change their behavior, satellite operators don't have to change their behavior, and we regulators don't have to change behavior.” Trivedi said.

The company has partnerships with chipset manufacturers, including Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek and Sony. Skylo has already certified several IoT chips from those companies and is in the process of certifying more for wearable devices and smartphones.

“Older phones are not going to be certified on our network. It's all the new devices that are coming out that have the correct chipset and then we work with the [original equipment manufacturer] “To get that device certified… by the end of this year, most major smartphone modems will support the Skylo network,” Trivedi said.

Dave Johnson, CEO of Intel Capital, explained that his fund's support is a result of his belief that Skylo is at the forefront of the D2D satellite opportunity.

“They've very smartly used existing infrastructure wherever possible. They've also done a very good job of engineering the solution end-to-end, making it seamless and easy for customers to adopt,” Johnson told CNBC.

On the other side of Skylo's network are the base stations it installs at satellite operators' gateways. Also known as ground stations, they are large satellite dishes that connect to the company's satellites in space. Each Skylo base station is essentially a single server rack, which Trivedi says is “very capital efficient,” that the company installs in a gateway.

So far, Skylo has eight base stations installed on satellite gateways, and its partners currently include Viasat, Ligated and TerreStar. Through those satellite operators, Skylo has begun initial service in the US, Canada and Europe.

“Sklyo is technically satellite agnostic, so as these different satellite providers come out and start supporting different things, they can add other partners to their portfolio,” Johnson said.

Trivedi said Skylo is generating revenue, but declined to disclose details. Skylo has 52 employees and, in addition to its headquarters in Mountain View, has offices in Finland and India.