Skylo raises USD 103 mn from SoftBank, others

Tech firm Skylo on Tuesday said it has raised USD 103 million (about Rs 730 crore) in funding from SoftBank Group and others.

The company, which has raised USD 116 million in total funding to date, saw participation from SoftBank Group in series B and was joined by series A co-leads DCM and Innovation Endeavors, alongside Moore Strategic Ventures, a statement said.

It had raised USD 13 million in series A round, the statement added.

Skylo makes affordable and ubiquitous network that connects any machine or sensors.

It leverages the cellular Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) protocol via satellite, making it possible to instantly connect billions of sensors on objects and machines in remote areas.

Skylo's new satellite connectivity leverages existing geostationary satellites to bring reliable connectivity without the need to add new infrastructure in space.

The statement said Skylo has completed successful commercial field trials with a major enterprise and government customers. Its customers include enterprise and government entities across industries, including automotive, railways, agriculture and maritime.

"Skylo envisions a world where connectivity for machines, sensors and devices is as ubiquitous as the sky. This low-cost, global fabric of connectivity for machine data will be transformative for entire industries," Skylo co-founder and CEO Parthsarathi Trivedi said.

The statement said Skylo will scale customer implementations, first in India and other emerging markets where it has already started implementing the technology in a range of industries.

Skylo's service will be commercially available later this summer and the company is in commercial trials with users in the US and other world regions for subsequent launches and market expansion, it added.

Skylo was founded in 2017 by Trivedi, Chief Technology Officer Andrew Nuttall and Chief Hub Architect Andrew Kalman.

Its current board of directors includes board chairman former US Ambassador Terry Kramer, David Chao of DCM, Scott Brady and Harpinder Singh of Innovation Endeavors, and Trivedi.

Skylo, which has offices in San Mateo (California, US), Bengaluru, and Tel Aviv, Israel, is growing the team globally to support its fast-growing customer base.