Airbus Ventures led the A2 investment round with participation from Kickstart Ventures, Genesis Alternative Ventures, Wavemaker, Cap Vista and SEEDS Capital. In-Q-Tel, had also joined in a previously undisclosed round.
SINGAPORE, 17 FEB 2023: Transcelestial’s latest injection of US$10M will place wireless laser communications (lasercomms) widely in the hands of five key markets in Southeast and India, supported by its Singapore-based Terabit Factory.
The use of funds will also enable Transcelestial to expand early market access to the US to address the urgent digital divide in broadband.
“Fast and affordable internet can be a matter of livelihood. We’ve transformed this for entire groups of people across some of Asia’s most dense urban and island environments. A great case study in 2022 was the urgent connectivity to a group of islands in Malaysia we provided, which allowed for dozens of villages downstream to livestream the FIFA World Cup, and use it also for education, healthcare and financial transformation! Now, more than ever, we see a similar urgency to respond to the digital divide in the US, especially for broadband,” said Rohit Jha, CEO and Co-Founder of Transcelestial.
Specifically, Transcelestial’s use of capital will be focused on:
- Ramping up growth in Southeast and South Asia via five markets: Transcelestial’s solutions are rapidly bridging the connectivity gap across Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore in collaboration with top telecom, ISP and enterprise partners who have already deployed their systems in production, delivering 4G, home and office broadband and campus connectivity.
- Responding to the urgency to fill US’s broadband gap – Building on its success in Asia – and in response to the FCC and NTIA’s call for urgent high-speed connectivity – Transcelestial is poised to bridge the USA’s digital divide via its lasercomms solutions for broadband and will explore collaborations over 12 months with government, enterprise and telecom leaders in select states.
- Securing supply chain consistency, despite global hurdles: To mitigate against supply chain interruptions faced by industry peers, Transcelestial will gear up its Singapore-based Terabit Factory. The manufacturing facility has the capacity to manufacture up to 2,400 CENTAURI devices annually – the largest deployment volume of any lasercomms producer globally.
Dr. Lewis Pinault, Partner at Airbus Ventures said, “Airbus Ventures is privileged to be working with phenomenal, world-changing companies. Over the last two years, we’ve supported Transcelestial from the front row as they set about transforming Southeast Asia with their lasercomms solution. We now aim to help lead their ambitions to bring that disruption to the US market and enable a new paradigm shift in connectivity from space in the future.”
Clayton Williams, MD (Australia) at In-Q-Tel said, “At In-Q-Tel we focus on finding globally leading technologies that can further the mission of our government partners. Transcelestial’s laser communications platform CENTAURI is a best in class solution for low cost, high bandwidth terrestrial communications. We are excited to help expand this capability to enable a space-based data backhaul for secure point-to-point communications from the US and anywhere on Earth.”
Minette Navarrete, President at Kickstart Ventures said, “Transcelestial envisions a future where access to high-quality connectivity is a fundamental right for all, which perfectly aligns with the ACTIVE Fund’s thesis of ‘The Frictionless Future’, where data moves swiftly, securely, and seamlessly, at scale. As early investors in Transcelestial, it has been exciting to witness significant milestones towards this future – its commercial successes, the expansion of its capable team, and its cutting-edge technology delivering satisfaction to its clients and their customers. With demand for connectivity skyrocketing, Transcelestial’s success is everyone’s success.”
Eunice Ooi, CEO at Cap Vista said, “Transcelestial is set to build from Singapore, for the world and deliver unique lasercomms solutions for ground and space system in the future.”
Dr Jeremy Loh, Managing Partner, Genesis Alternative Ventures said “We are impressed by Transcelestial’s clear vision, sound execution, and cutting-edge technology to enable faster, cleaner and more affordable internet connectivity in both urban and rural areas. Through this funding, we believe that the company will accelerate the democratisation of digital access in Southeast Asia, which is inline with Genesis’ profit-with-a-purpose mission.”
Transcelestial’s device, CENTAURI, delivers high-speed internet and connectivity via laser beam, eliminating the need for underground cables or radio frequency-based devices. Its technology can connect a few buildings in less than a day. Not only are these laser links easy to set up, but they can also withstand tough weather conditions.
Most recently, Transcelestial proved the world’s first commercial 5G at the University of Technology Sydney by delivering connectivity wirelessly using lasercomms technology at a 10Gbps capacity.
Transcelestial has raised US$24M to date with backing in previous rounds from major investors such as Wavemaker Partners, EDBI, Airbus Ventures, Kickstart Ventures, Cap Vista, SEEDS Capital (Enterprise SG), Entrepreneur First, Partech Ventures, 500 Global, AirTree Ventures, Tekton Ventures, SGInnovate, SparkLabs Global Ventures, Michael Seibel (CEO of Y-Combinator, Founder of Twitch.tv), Charles Songhurst (Microsoft’s former Head of Corporate Strategy) and others.
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About Transcelestial:
Transcelestial has mass-produced a solution for superfast global Internet distribution that leverages its proprietary wireless laser communication technology to create a wireless distribution network between buildings, traditional cell towers, street-level poles and other physical infrastructure – with a much lower total operating cost for Mobile Network Operators, Internet Service Providers and enterprises.
Shortly, Transcelestial aims to develop a constellation of small satellites positioned in Low Earth Orbit, allowing their laser network to not only beam across cities but upwards to connect continents globally too.
Transcelestial has won numerous industry and global awards such as Most Frontier Company by Asiastar10x10, SPIFFY San Andreas Award for Most Disruptive Technology by Telecom Council, Forbes 30 Under 30 to our CTO Dr. Mohammad Danesh, Edge 35 Under 35 to our CEO Rohit Jha, The Most Ambitious Start-Up in Photonics Award by The Optical Society (OSA), etc.
About Airbus Ventures:
Headquartered in Silicon Valley, with offices in Toulouse and Tokyo, Airbus Ventures is a fast-moving, early-stage venture capital company that independently funds and supports startups set to shift both the aerospace industry and our planetary system to a sustainable future. Airbus Ventures has helped aspiring innovators reach new dimensions of achievement since 2015.
