Everyone else is shrinking satellites. K2 raised $500m to build giant ones, and put AI in orbit.
Most satellite startups are racing to build smaller. K2 Space is going the other way, on purpose. Investors just handed it $500 million to keep going bigger.
K2 raised a $500 million Series D at a $6.8 billion valuation, it said on Thursday. Kleiner Perkins and ICONIQ led the round, with Alphabet’s CapitalG, Lightspeed and ARK Invest among the backers. That more than doubles the $3 billion valuation it carried months ago. K2 has now raised over $1 billion, against more than $1 billion in signed contracts.
The bet is contrarian. Most of the industry shrinks satellites to cut launch costs. K2 argues the opposite: in orbit, power decides what a satellite can do, so it builds big, high-power ones instead.
The proof is already up there
Its first “mega-class” satellite, Gravitas, reached orbit in March on a SpaceX Falcon 9. It weighs two tonnes, generates 20 kilowatts, and...
Copyright of this story solely belongs to thenextweb.com. To see the full text click HERE
