Aquarian Space Raises Seed Round for Deep Space Communications Network
BOULDER, Colo. (Aquarian Space PR) — Aquarian Space, the world’s first high data rate internet service for the Solar System, announced today they have successfully raised a seed round led by notable Draper Associates, a leader in early-stage venture capital having funded companies such as SpaceX, Tesla and Coinbase. This raise will accelerate development plans for Aquarian Space’s SOLNETTM, which will offer critical high-speed internet and communications for beyond-Earth operations.
High-speed internet drives communication on Earth; however, this fast and reliable network ends with the geostationary orbit. Above Earth’s orbit, current communication is reliant on technology dating back to the 1960’s, which makes downloading lunar and deep space data an extremely slow process. With the lunar economy in fast development, driven by NASA’s Artemis program, a lack of high-speed communication poses a serious bottleneck for lunar operations and future Mars exploration.
Aquarian Space is solving this problem by setting up communications between Earth, the Moon, Mars and beyond by building commercial high data rate, high-speed delivery satellite networks enabling 100Mbps Moon to Earth speeds 24/7. This is synonymous for space operations going from dial-up to high-speed, and would make streaming 4K videos possible from the Moon.
“In 2021 there were 13 landers, orbiters and rovers on and around the Moon,” said Kelly Larson, CEO of Aquarian Space. “By 2030, we will have around 200 creating a multibillion dollar lunar economy. But this can’t happen without solid reliable Earth-to-Moon communications.”
Aquarian Space is currently conducting technical reviews with several commercial providers for the NASA CLPS Mission, other US lunar commercial explorers and international lunar missions to bring end-to-end data and communication services by 2024. Customers are not required to change or update technology on their end to integrate with Aquarian’s network making this a very easy and affordable solution.
“We think it’s high time that our solar system got high-speed internet access,” said Tim Draper, Founder and Managing Partner of Draper Associates. “The team at Aquarian Space has the vision to make it happen and we at Draper Associates are thrilled to be along for the journey.”
This announcement follows Aquarian Space’s successful completion of Seraphim Space Camp, an accelerator run by Seraphim Capital, who said of Aquarian’s Mission 8 cohort: “These 6 early-stage startups have been selected from a pipeline of 1,500 companies and represent the top 2% of seed-stage SpaceTech startups we view in our global deal flow at Seraphim.”
Funding by Draper Associates soon followed and will allow Aquarian to grow their team, which already includes decades of aerospace technology leadership, experience on over 50 missions and a partnership with CREAN, Inc., a leader in innovative aerospace engineering.
“Having Draper Associates invest in us is powerful,” said Larson. “Not only does it accelerate our development planning, but it means they believe in our mission to create the long overdue interplanetary communications infrastructure needed for the next wave of lunar and deep space exploration. ”
About Aquarian Space
Aquarian Space is an internet services provider for the Solar System, building the first commercial high data rate, high-speed delivery communications network for the Moon and beyond. Aquarian helps commercial and government customers get the data flow they need for growing performance on lunar missions and future Mars missions. Learn more: aquarianspace.com
About Draper Associates
Founded in 1985 by Tim Draper, Draper Associates is the leader in early-stage venture capital that continues to invest in technology companies that show exceptional promise. The firm’s investments have included Coinbase, Baidu, Tesla, Skype, SpaceX, Twitch, Hotmail, Focus Media, Robinhood, Carta, and other industry unicorns at the early stage. Draper Associates has built a reputation for encouraging entrepreneurs to drive their businesses to greatness, to transform industries with new technologies, and to build platforms for extraordinary growth, jobs and wealth creation. Send plans to [email protected] To learn more, visit www.draper.vc.
