Fleet Space Technologies in big $150 million capital raising

Satellite manufacturer and space-based mineral detection company Fleet Space Technologies has closed a $150 million Series D funding round, led by Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG), an arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

Joined by existing investors Blackbird Ventures, Hostplus, Horizons Ventures, Artesian Venture Partners, and Alumni Ventures, the raising is one of the largest in the burgeoning Australian space sector, and places a valuation on Fleet Space of more than $800 million.

The new investment will be used to expand the capabilities of Fleet Space’s end-to-end exploration platform, ExoSphere which combines AI, space and land based sensors to accelerate the discovery of critical minerals.

The Senior Managing Director of Teachers’ Venture Growth Rick Prostko said: “Current mineral exploration methods are inadequate for efficient discovery and production.

“Fleet Space addresses this with advanced 3D subsurface imaging and AI analysis tools, which have the potential to sustainably transform the industry.”

Founded by former propulsion engineer at the European Space Agency, Flavia Tata Nardini, and aerospace entrepreneur, Matt Pearson, Fleet Space has integrated its own satellites in LEO, smart seismic sensors, and AI into the ExoSphere technology in use by Rio Tinto and Barrick Gold, and from Australia to Chile.

CEO Tata Nardini said: “There are two versions of the future. One where we bend the latest advances in space, AI, and big data towards building a clean energy future and another where we risk net-zero targets falling out of reach as the rate of new discoveries of energy transition minerals continues to decline.

“With ExoSphere, we have combined these technologies into an end-to-end platform that seamlessly integrates with and complements modern mining operations – making the frontier of exploration technology accessible to the global mining industry within a single workflow.”

In the past year Fleet Space has:

• Expanded the company’s global footprint to the US, Canada, Chile, and Luxembourg with 130+ employees worldwide to support the deployment of ExoSphere by over 40 exploration companies
• And launched ExoSphere Discovery, Fleet Space’s AI-powered exploration technology which uses proprietary multimodal AI models to predict opportunity zones and targets with potential mineralisation.

Federico Tata Nardini, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Fleet Space said: “We are proud to be among the few companies globally to close a Series D round in the context of reduced activity in the venture ecosystem and look forward to furthering our vision, strategic initiatives, and roadmap to scale the business to the next level.”

Picture: Fleet Space Technologies/Co-Founders, Flavia Tata Nardini (CEO) and Matt Pearson (CXO)