Skylo Technologies – a leading direct-to-device satellite connectivity service provider – announced that it had secured $37 million in funding co-led by Intel Capital and Innovation Endeavors. The company’s new investors include BMW i Ventures, Next47, Samsung Catalyst Fund, and Seraphim Space. And David Johnson of Intel Capital joins the board, bringing a wealth of experience and insight to fortify Skylo’s leadership team.
This new funding round expands Skylo’s scale and business operations to support better smartphones, wearables, IoT devices, and mobile network operator customers. And this is a major step in Skylo’s commitment to making standards-based non-terrestrial networks (NTN) more accessible and efficient for numerous sectors, including consumer, automotive, agriculture, energy, transportation, and beyond.
With this new funding round, Skylo will grow its team with the brightest minds in the industry, enhance its marketing efforts and technological developments to bring online new capabilities, reach new verticals, and further its global footprint.
Skylo launched its initial service across the US, Canada, and Europe in partnership with major chipset makers, including Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek, and Sony, together with the world’s leading device OEMs and mobile carriers like Deutsche Telekom. And Skylo has successfully partnered with satellite operators to enable the service on dedicated, fully licensed spectrum and existing satellite assets. This enables terrestrial mobile carriers to take advantage of the most economical, scalable solution for direct-to-device connectivity without sacrificing their own spectrum or changing their behavior in any way since Skylo’s network integrates as a standard roaming partner. Skylo has built a strong ecosystem of OEMs, carriers, and supply chain partners that have brought the service to market.
Skylo and Samsung S.LSI have an ongoing partnership to bring Skylo’s service to Samsung’s flagship 5G modems. And Samsung Catalyst’s investment in Skylo strengthens ongoing development efforts for mutual customers.
KEY QUOTES:
“We’re immensely proud to lead this new chapter in direct-to-device satellite connectivity, supported by an incredible consortium of investors. Their commitment helps make Skylo’s standards-based service the default choice for the NTN ecosystem. This round accelerates our carrier partnerships and supports all top device makers adopting our standards-based solution.”
- Parth Trivedi, CEO and Co-Founder of Skylo
“As lead investors, we recognize the transformative potential of Skylo’s scalable approach for 5G satellite-to-device communications. Since our first meeting with Parth and the team, we’ve been impressed with the extensive industry ecosystem support they’ve received in delivering a complete end-to-end connectivity service for high volume device categories at low cost.”
- David Johnson, Managing Director at Intel Capital
“We’re proud to announce our decision to back Skylo again — a breakthrough service that is opening new markets and opportunities by connecting remote and underserved areas. We’re excited to be part of this journey and are confident that Skylo’s technology will play a crucial role in shaping the future of global communication and connectivity.”
- Scott Brady, Founding Partner at Innovation Endeavors
“We were impressed with Skylo’s global connectivity solution that enables ‘always-on, always-connected’ communication for the automotive industry. Skylo has a proven solution and team that is going to make satellite connectivity a new standard for the next generation of vehicles while keeping people safe and making their experiences seamless wherever they may go.”
- Kasper Sage, Managing Partner at BMW i Ventures
