Rendition of a nanosatellite in the Astrocast constellation. Photo: Astrocast.

Astrocast (formerly known as Else) announced its latest seed round funding was oversubscribed by $1.1 million Swiss Francs ($1.1 million), bringing the total seed round to $4.1 million. Investiere.ch, a Swiss start-up investor, provided the additional capital, adding to the current seed investors which includes Airbus Ventures as well as numerous additional Swiss- and internationally-based private investors.

Astrocast is currently developing a 64-unit network of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) nanosatellites that will provide Internet of Things (IOT) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) services to global enterprises. The seed round will support the company’s business operations through Astrocast’s planned demonstration mission that will launch the first two nanosatellites into LEO in mid-2018.

The constellation’s satellites will collect data, which will be delivered to ground stations, then distributed for access by customers through a secure internet gateway. Astrocast expects to serve numerous sectors including smart agriculture, automotive, transportation and logistics, utilities, maritime, oil and gas, among others.

In addition to this seed round, Astrocast has also secured $3 million in grant financing through Swiss grants and the European Space Agency (ESA) Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) Business Applications program.