(Bloomberg/Sana Pashankar) — Space startup Apex has raised $200 million in a new funding round, reaching unicorn status as it supports companies and governments developing satellite networks.
The new round was led by Interlagos, a venture capital firm started by former SpaceX employees, and takes Apex’s valuation to over $1 billion, according to the company.
The Los Angeles-based company makes and sells satellite buses, which control operations like power generation and communication and allow for customers to add equipment such as cameras, scientific instruments or defense technology.
Apex recently expanded its factory in Los Angeles, boosting production capacity from 12 to 18 satellites a month, and now the company plans on using the new funding to scale up manufacturing and become more vertically integrated, said Ian Cinnamon, chief executive officer and co-founder.
Previous funding rounds included investors like Point72 Ventures, 8VC and Andreessen Horowitz.
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Buying customizable satellite buses can enable operators to develop and launch satellite constellations more rapidly, according to Apex.
“The entire company’s premise is built around high-rate manufacturing of satellites,” Cinnamon said in an interview. “Because of all this constellation demand that we’re seeing from commercial and government customers, we want to make sure we’re ramping up ahead of that.”
The demand for and development of large-scale satellite constellations, which can be used for Earth observation, communications and internet access, has shot up in recent years. SpaceX commands the single largest network, with more than 8,000 Starlink satellites in orbit.
Other companies, including Amazon.com Inc. and Telesat Corp., are building their own constellations. The European Space Agency has a plan for a network of communications satellites, too.
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