附近上门

has raised a $19 million Series B led by existing investors and .

The two-year-old San Francisco startup describes itself as an aerospace and information services company providing on-demand Earth observation data via advanced space radar. Prior to this financing, which also included participation from Argentina鈥檚 and , it raised $14.9 million in a .

The company鈥檚 radar-powered satellites work at night, can see through clouds, and operate under any weather condition by bouncing microwave pulses off targets and measuring the reflected energy.

鈥淭hese satellites have been around for quite a while, but historically, they鈥檝e been the size of a school bus,鈥� CEO and co-founder told 附近上门 News. 鈥淲e鈥檝e miniaturized them to something very small鈥攖he size of a backpack鈥攖hat allows for lower cost and the ability to monitor places around on an hourly basis instead of daily or every other day.鈥�

Traditionally, the satellites have mainly been used for defense and intelligence applications by governments, weigh more than 1,000 kilograms, and cost half a billion to $1 billion each, said Banazadeh. But Capella plans to expand the capability to the commercial arena with satellites that weigh only 37 kilograms and cost 鈥渋n the very low, single-digit millions鈥� range.

Capella claims its satellites can also detect and track changes in the position of metal objects, from small North Korean smuggling freighters to bridges that an insurer is being asked to underwrite. Capella鈥檚 technology can also penetrate the ground to see hidden assets, such as water for irrigation, and otherwise undetectable problems, such as leaky underground pipes in chemical plants, according to the company.

Capella鈥檚 first prototype satellite is going up in mid-November. A second prototype is scheduled to go up in June 2019.

鈥淲e鈥檙e testing all of our technologies on that first satellite,鈥� Banazadeh said. 鈥淲ith the second one, we will start commercializing and giving imagery to lots of customers. We鈥檒l also be kickstarting the process of preparing the company to mass manufacture the satellites.鈥�

Ultimately, the company wants to put up 36 satellites around the world.

鈥淭o get hourly imagery in the world, we鈥檒l need that many satellites globally,鈥� he said.

Capella currently has 47 employees and plans to hire another 10 or so over the next few months, mainly on the business and product side, according to Banazadeh.

He said the company already has tens of millions of dollars of pre-sale commitments and envisions potential customers will be companies with global infrastructure assets that need to be monitored. Current customers include the Department of Defense, blue-chip companies and NGOs.

鈥淥ur goal is to help companies prevent damages and disasters and ultimately save resources and lives in the process,鈥� Banzadeh said.

of DCVC said in a written statement that major industries and governments are 鈥渟tarved for timely satellite data, and even more so for data with the unique signal and intelligence advantage Capella鈥檚 synthetic aperture radar tech can provide.鈥�

鈥淐ommodity trading, urban development, critical infrastructure, shipping and security: businesses across the board realize that milliseconds matter in today鈥檚 global economy, and a steady stream of reliable, easily accessible Earth information just does not exist,鈥� he added.

of Spark Capital said his firm believes in Capella鈥檚 mission to offer better visibility 鈥渋nto more corners of the world than any other satellite system.鈥�