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TAMPA, Fla. — France’s space agency helped local startup Skynopy raise nearly $18 million to rapidly grow its ground station network amid a broader national push to boost financial support for the industry.
Skynopy said June 30 that CNES joined a seed round led by French venture capital firm Alven, following a $3.1 million raise announced last year to develop a business reusing spare antenna capacity.
Pierre Bertrand, Skynopy co-founder and CEO, told SpaceNews the funding will support a “massive agreement” with an unnamed ground station partner, helping more than double the network to over 100 antennas in under three years.
Skynopy is developing kit it likens to a mobile phone SIM card: onboard radio pre-configuration and integration technology enabling satellite operators to quickly access proprietary and partner ground stations operating in S, X and Ka band spectrum.
By partnering with satellite radio providers and pre-integrating their hardware in advance, Bertrand said Skynopy can quickly enable customers to access the ground stations even if they are already in orbit.
According to Bertrand, Skynopy recently tested its SIM card-like technology with Airbus Defense and Space, successfully downloading data from the French aerospace giant’s Pléiades Neo Earth observation satellites after just two weeks of setup, thanks to pre-integrated onboard radio configurations.
Skynopy aims to differentiate itself by billing customers only for capacity used, rather than the amount of time teleports are leased, which the venture says appeals especially to Earth observation operators.
Plans game-changing ground network
Bertrand said the partnership agreement would also allow Skynopy to install its own flat-panel phased array antennas at the partner’s sites, similar to its October deal involving 20 teleports owned by French small satellite operator Kinéis.
The expansion drive is part of plans to provide a unified, high-speed ground station network called Akar by 2028, which would heavily rely on Ka-band.
Bertrand said Akar (Indonesian for root) is being developed as part of France 2030, a 54 billion euro ($64 billion) national investment plan launched by the French government in 2021 to boost innovation and industrial competitiveness across strategic sectors, including space.
Akar “is a game changer,” Bertrand added via email, promising “real-time capability of satellites to download and send commands [at] a very high data rate (10 Gbps) comparable to optical/laser current technologies.”
Skynopy plans to release more details about Akar late summer.
The 18-month-old startup currently offers services from 18 ground sites, each with access to one or two antennas at a time, leveraging infrastructure from Kinéis, Amazon Web Services and third-party teleports with spare capacity.
Bertrand said Skynopy’s ground station network is supporting more than 10 satellites today, with customers including French data provider Prométhée Earth Intelligence and Hemeria, a space and defense company also based in France.
France eyes bigger space role
CNES invested in the startup through France’s SpaceFounders program. France-based Omnes and Expansion of New York also participated in the latest funding round, along with existing Danish early-stage investor Heartcore.
Earlier this month, Eutelsat announced plans to raise about $1.6 billion this year to take on growing broadband competition from SpaceX and China in low Earth orbit (LEO), after France agreed to double its stake in its flagship satellite operator to nearly 30%.
French President Emmanuel Macron was also cited June 20 urging for even more investment to counter growing U.S. and Chinese influence in LEO.
According to a recent report from the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), European space ventures attracted a record 1.5 billion euros in venture funding last year, a 56% year-over-year increase, with France leading the continent in capital raised.
Much of that growth was also driven by mixed public-private funding rounds, reflecting how European governments are increasingly co-investing alongside venture capital firms, in addition to offering traditional grant support.
Bertrand said the French government had supported Skynopy’s early research and development work through CNES and state-owned investment bank BPIFrance.
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