SoftBank invests $15 million in aerospace startup Sceye to enter the field of giant floating climate monitoring stations

The Zhitong Finance App learned that America's leading aerospace company Sceye, which specializes in high-altitude platform systems (HAPS), has received an investment of 15 million US dollars from Japan's SoftBank. The company mainly builds giant bullet-shaped helium balloons floating in the stratosphere to monitor climate data and provide internet access to hard-to-reach regions.

Sceye has built more than 20 Zeppelin-like spaceships in a large 41,600-square-foot warehouse in New Mexico. The spaceships — technically known as high-altitude platform stations — are 214 feet long, almost as long as the wingspan of a Boeing 747, and are equipped with dedicated cameras and radars. The monitoring station designed by Sceye can hover above the Earth for a long time and obtain real-time data on wildfires, floods, and greenhouse gases. They can also provide wireless services to people on the ground during large-scale disasters.

The company's CEO Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen said he expects SoftBank, the telecommunications division under the SoftBank Group, to be an important strategic partner for the startup. Frandsen said, “As a telecommunications company, it knows the limitations of signal towers, fiber optic cables, and satellite constellations; this is a key area where they are making a big difference.”

The company was founded in 2014 and has reached a valuation of $580 million thanks to the latest round of investments. The company's other investors include Saudi investor Mawarid Holding Company.

Sceye (pronounced “sky”) began testing its high-tech balloon nine years ago with a much smaller prototype. Last year, the company completed its first “all-weather flight,” where one of its sites flew continuously for more than 24 hours in an area — a feat Frandsen said helped prove the viability of its strategy of using solar energy to run during the day and rely on batteries at night.

With new funding and a partnership with SoftBank, Sceye plans to fly one of its stratospheric platforms to Japan next year to provide several weeks of broadband service there before returning to New Mexico. Frandsen said the demo will be one of the last steps the company takes before preparing the product for commercial sale.

SoftBank President Sun Zhengyi said in a statement that SoftBank has been developing similar satellite-related services since 2017. Sun Zhengyi said that high-altitude platform station technology will “play a key role in expanding the network coverage area” to cover areas that are difficult to reach with existing networks, adding that these services “will also provide a means to restore communication in the event of a large-scale disaster.”

Previously, Sceye also collaborated with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the US Geological Survey to provide climate and environmental imaging services.