The funds will be used for the development of new satellites and other technologies such as artificial intelligence and data fusion.
Commercial remote-sensing satellite operator HawkEye 360, has raised an additional $10m from Lockheed Martin and company insidersi n an extension of its Series D-1 investment round. The funding extension brings the total Series D-1 amount to $68 million and total capital raised to $378 million. The funding will be used to develop new satellites and other technologies, such as artificial intelligence and data fusion. Additioally, HawkEye 360 is also investing in multi-intelligence orchestration to get more value from the collected RF data. The investment by Lockheed Martin also gives HawkEye 360 a premier partner in U.S. and global defense markets.
Terms of the deal include a cooperative agreement between HawkEye and Lockheed to develop end-to-end remote sensing solutions for government and commercial customers, with a particular focus on delivering sophisticated RF intelligence systems globally, HawkEye 360 said in a statement.
HawkEye 360 is currently developing its Block 3 satellite architecture, which will begin with HawkEye 360s Cluster 14. No launch date is set for that cluster. Currently, the company has 21 satellites in orbit, three with the Block 1 architecture that were launched in December 2018, and 18 with the Block 2 architecture that have been deploying since January 2020.
Speaking on the funding, John Serafini, CEO of HawkEye 360 said: Lockheed Martins leadership as a system integrator and their signal processing capability will expand what HawkEye 360 can accomplish as we work together to make the world a safer and more secure place.
Chris Moran, who runs Lockheed Martin Ventures, said: We see synergies between our programmatic analytical expertise and HawkEye 360s commercial RF data generating constellation. HawkEye 360 has the potential to apply highly tailored RF solutions to fit our customers mission.
