Australia's Airtree leads round for space tech start-up

Salus Ventures, which focuses on the nexus of enterprise technology and national security, also participated. Existing investors In-Q-Tel and Y Combinator reportedly re-upped. Y Combinator provided an AUD 3m round in 2021.

HEO, which stands for High Earth Orbit, specialises in satellite-to-satellite imaging and analytics technology, which essentially involves monitoring other infrastructure in orbit. It serves government, defence, and commercial customers across Australia, the US, and the UK.

The company uses 38 early observation satellites to conduct in-orbit inspections, which it describes as key to protecting and getting the most out of space assets and data. Its technology allows users to monitor potentially hazardous debris, track its movement, and predict future trajectories.

“HEO is a bit of a rarity in the space sector in Australia. Not only are they the first company globally to have built these space imagery capabilities, they've also quickly unlocked material revenue streams and grown in a capital efficient way that many other space technology businesses cannot,” James Cameron, a partner at Airtree, said in a social media post.

“It's early days for [founders Will Crowe and Hiranya Jayakody] and the HEO team, but they've got the right mix of deep technical expertise, ambition and adaptability to pioneer non-Earth imaging that will unlock our understanding of objects in the space environment.”

Demand for space debris services is expected to rise as launch costs decline and scrap material congestion worsens, leading to more collisions and breakups creating further space debris. The regional leader in this space tech sub-niche is arguably Japan’s Astroscale, which raised a USD 76m Series G last February, bringing its total funding to USD 376m.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Technology
• Early-stage
• Australia
• AirTree Ventures
• Y Combinator
• space