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SAN FRANCISCO – PredaSAR, a Florida startup led by retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Roger Teague, raised $25 million in seed funding for its plan to build a constellation of at least 44 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites.
“The Defense Department has been after a space-based radar solution for many years,” Teague told SpaceNews. “There’s a need for a SAR moving-target indicator… I believe there is going to be strong market demand.”
PredaSAR was founded in 2019 by Marc Bell, an entrepreneur and investor who is the chairman and co-founder of Terran Orbital, which owns Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems. Bell now serves as PredaSAR’s chairman. Before closing the seed funding round, PredaSAR hired Tyvak to build its first two satellites, Bell said.
PredaSAR is focused on serving both government and commercial markets.
“There’s a whole host of missions within the government space: defense, intelligence, homeland security,” Teague said. “Beyond that, there are any number of commercial opportunities that haven’t been exploited yet.”
PredaSAR will launch its first satellite in early 2021 “with many more to follow,” Bell said.
PredaSAR executives are not yet ready to discuss the resolution their radar satellites will offer. Nor do they know how many satellites will be in PredaSAR’s ultimate constellation, but “we will be putting up a minimum of 44,” Bell said.
For now, the large seed investment round “sends an important message,” Teagues said. “You don’t see $25 million seed raises in this space right now. We’ve got capital, momentum and a strong leadership team to get this done.”
PredaSAR investors include “global institutional investors, including Miami-based lead investor, Rokk3r Fuel,” according to a March 2 news release.
“There is an ever-increasing demand for low-latency SAR data. PredaSAR’s pending constellation will feature constant image capture to end users, resulting in the most powerful small-satellite SAR system ever delivered, that is well-ahead of other satellite technology,” Bell said in a statement. “Proceeds from the raise will be used to manufacture and launch two SAR satellites through a strategic partnership with Tyvak.”