Allied Minds (LSE: ALM), a diversified holding company focused on venture creation within the life science and technology sectors, today announces that its subsidiary, HawkEye 360, Inc. (HawkEye 360 or the company), a developer of a space-based radio frequency (RF) mapping and analytics system, has raised $11.0 million in new equity investments in a Series A preferred financing led by Razor’s Edge Ventures, with additional participation by Allied Minds and a defence market leader. HawkEye 360 also intends to issue up to an additional $2.75 million in Series A preferred shares to new and existing shareholders within 60 days, resulting in a total expected financing of up to $13.75 million.
The funds will be used to complete the development and manufacturing of the HawkEye 360 Pathfinder Cluster of three small satellites, which is scheduled for launch and testing in late 2017, as well as grow the company’s engineering and business development teams.
Once the company’s Pathfinder Cluster is launched, the management team of the company believe that the envisioned commercial constellation will be positioned to be the world’s first privately-funded constellation of small satellites flown in formation that will be capable of collecting data and generating reports on geolocated wireless signals. By taking RF data and turning it into actionable information, HawkEye 360 will be able to offer commercial enterprises and governmental entities, data analytics products that can help them make critical decisions, save lives, and better track assets.
HawkEye 360’s constellation of small satellites, which will be flown autonomously in formation 600 kilometers from the Earth’s surface, aims to enable commercial applications such as allowing governmental entities and corporate customers to closely monitor transportation networks across air, land and sea to ensure normal and safe activity. For government regulators, telecommunications companies and satellite broadcasters, HawkEye 360’s system is being designed with the ability to monitor RF spectrum usage to help identify areas of interference, better understand spectrum deployment, and avoid negative impact to operations. The system could also help to detect and locate activated emergency beacons to improve response times in life-threatening situations.
“Since HawkEye 360 was formed in September 2015, the company has been making strides towards bringing its capabilities to market,” said Chris Silva, CEO of Allied Minds. “We are confident that the ability to visualise information in RF signals and provide it globally will drive the next wave of growth in the commercial Earth observation market. This successful financing validates HawkEye 360’s business model and will enable it to accelerate its path to commercialisation. It is also a strong example of how the Allied Minds model is evolving, as we begin to increase the proportion of funding in our subsidiaries from syndicates of sophisticated third-party investors.”
In conjunction with the Series A financing, HawkEye 360 also announces the appointment of John Serafini as full-time Chief Executive Officer. Serafini previously served as a Senior Vice President at Allied Minds where he led the formation of and investment into HawkEye 360, as well as other Allied Minds companies such as BridgeSat, Federated Wireless, Optio Labs, Whitewood Encryption and Percipient Networks. Serafini is joining HawkEye 360 to enable him to work more closely with the HawkEye 360 team and its strategic partners to further accelerate its commercialisation and launch.
“The successful completion of this financing round is a testament to HawkEye 360’s innovative and forward-looking team and syndicate of investors, who recognise the opportunities in the fast-growing LEO satellite and related big data markets,” said Serafini. “I am excited to join this visionary group full time, and be part of what I believe will be a new era in space-based technologies and capabilities.”
