Rendition of Helios Wire’s S-band satellite design. Photo: Helios Wire.

Helios Wire announced that it has raised an additional $4 million in financing to help facilitate the launch of its first two satellites. According to Helios, it will allocate these funds toward the development of its satellite-based Internet of Things (IOT) system.

Applications requiring mid-latency data transmissions will remain the focus as the first two Helios satellites reach operation, Helios stated. As subsequent satellites are launched, the system will offer increasingly lower latency data for near real-time monitoring.

“The funds from this round of financing will be put toward the launch of our first satellite this Christmas, as well as the two other satellites scheduled to be launched during the second half of 2018,” said Scott Larson, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founder of Helios Wire.

Helios Wire hopes to help push small and medium-sized companies to take advantage of new IOT technologies and services. “Today, industrial IOT is frequently considered to be costly, inaccessible, and best suited for larger, international organizations; but that won’t always be the case,” said Larson.

“For instance, a small-scale farmer will be able to use Helios Wire’s economical IOT service to optimally manage a handful of fields. As well, multinational shipping corporations and exporter-importers will be able to optimize fleets and shipments,” he said. “For small-to-medium sized businesses, the Helios system would reduce capital and operational expenses and infrastructure costs, allowing for more rapid technological adoption.”

According to the Boston Consulting Group, companies will spend more than $267 billion on IOT technologies, products and services by 2020.