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Ibadan, 9 May 2024. – Xona, a company developing a network of small satellites to provide high-precision navigation services, has announced an oversubscribed $19 million Series A funding round. Future Ventures and Seraphim Space led the round, with participation from new investors, including NGP Capital, Industrious Ventures, Murata Electronics, Space Capital, and Aloniq.
Xona will subsequently use the funding to accelerate the deployment of its low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite network as it drives towards commercialization. With this round, Xona will also begin beta operations of their PULSAR™ satellite service, which looks to provide the robust precision guidance necessary for intelligent and autonomous technologies to scale beyond highly structured environments.
Compared to GPS, PULSAR™ aims to introduce orders of magnitude improvements in accuracy, availability, and security, which are crucial for a future filled with autonomous systems. Major industries such as agriculture, automotive, and defense are eager to transition to automation but continuously face challenges from unstructured environments and inadequate GPS performance. Xona’s PULSAR™ will allow these devices to expand beyond their current limits by enabling them to determine their location within a few centimeters even if they have never operated at that location before.
Commenting about the service, Brian Manning, CEO and co-founder of Xona, said, “A century ago, people looked to the North Star for trusted guidance when other methods were unavailable. AI and automation are the future – our PULSAR™ service aims to be for these industries what the North Star was for humanity in previous centuries.” The CEO also added, “This round is a testament to our team’s ability to overcome these challenges and has armed us with the resources we need to bring our vision to life.”
