Spain-Backed Fund Joins FOSSA's Sovereign Satellite Communications Push (spacenews.com)
(Sunday June 28, 2026 @07:34PM (EditorDavid)
from the satellite's-state dept.)
- Reference: 0184166944
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/06/28/222254/spain-backed-fund-joins-fossas-sovereign-satellite-communications-push
- Source link: https://spacenews.com/spain-backed-fund-joins-fossas-sovereign-satellite-communications-push/
Spanish startup FOSSA Systems "has raised about $10.5 million to expand its connectivity constellation," [1]reports Space News , noting some funding is backed by Spain's government:
> The support from the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT) comes a year after the fund injected 14 million euros [2]into Spain's Sateliot , which is also developing a satellite connectivity network with security and defense applications. Spanish private investment firm Kibo Ventures led FOSSA's funding round, the six-year-old venture announced June 24, bringing its total raised to date to nearly 20 million euros.
>
> The proceeds will help fuel FOSSA's push beyond the tiny picosatellites it once used to connect low-power monitoring devices toward larger cubesats in low Earth orbit, enabling additional sovereign communications and space-based intelligence capabilities... The company's funding round follows a wave of investments this year in European ventures planning to develop sovereign space capabilities, including Austrian propulsion startup Gate Space, which [3]secured 6.3 million euros earlier this month from a European Commission-backed accelerator program.
> "Our goal is to establish FOSSA as a European benchmark in sovereign space infrastructure," said Julián Fernández, FOSSA's CEO and cofounder.
[1] https://spacenews.com/spain-backed-fund-joins-fossas-sovereign-satellite-communications-push/
[2] https://spacenews.com/spain-backs-sateliot-with-15-million-to-expand-connectivity-constellation/
[3] https://spacenews.com/austrian-propulsion-startup-joins-sovereign-space-funding-surge/
> The support from the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT) comes a year after the fund injected 14 million euros [2]into Spain's Sateliot , which is also developing a satellite connectivity network with security and defense applications. Spanish private investment firm Kibo Ventures led FOSSA's funding round, the six-year-old venture announced June 24, bringing its total raised to date to nearly 20 million euros.
>
> The proceeds will help fuel FOSSA's push beyond the tiny picosatellites it once used to connect low-power monitoring devices toward larger cubesats in low Earth orbit, enabling additional sovereign communications and space-based intelligence capabilities... The company's funding round follows a wave of investments this year in European ventures planning to develop sovereign space capabilities, including Austrian propulsion startup Gate Space, which [3]secured 6.3 million euros earlier this month from a European Commission-backed accelerator program.
> "Our goal is to establish FOSSA as a European benchmark in sovereign space infrastructure," said Julián Fernández, FOSSA's CEO and cofounder.
[1] https://spacenews.com/spain-backed-fund-joins-fossas-sovereign-satellite-communications-push/
[2] https://spacenews.com/spain-backs-sateliot-with-15-million-to-expand-connectivity-constellation/
[3] https://spacenews.com/austrian-propulsion-startup-joins-sovereign-space-funding-surge/
PLD Space (Score:2)
by paugq ( 443696 )
It seems like Fossa Systems' satellite design capabilities will be complementary to PLD Space's (another Spanish company) satellite launching capabilities.
https://www.pldspace.com/en/
I'm sure SpaceX will be happy to launch them (Score:2)
by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 )
Since it would take anyone else an eternity to launch them all.
Re: (Score:2)
by Charlotte ( 16886 )
Seems you're correct, these guys usually launch using SpaceX's Falcon 9, on a Transporter rideshare mission.
Re: 10.5 million (Score:2)
I build satellites that cost less than a million and those are the elaborate ones. Launch costs are about $45k per kilo. The problem is scheduling as the capacity for launching satellites is still very much constrained.
Julian is a very capable leader at Fossa. He can make this work.
Re: (Score:2)
It would be good if you could give an example breakdown of the cost, components and capabilities of satellites in this money range.