Kleos Space is an Earth Observation Data-as-a-Service company which collects radio signals with its own satellites and then processes them using its proprietary algorithms to create data products, locate human activity and deliver strategic insights.
When one glances at their website, they sound almost like a league of superheroes, dealing with climate change, human trafficking, border safety, and much more. CEO Andy Bowyer confirms that the early adopter customers were government entities.
“In terms of opportunities at the moment, our pipeline sits well over 200 customers. Roughly a third of those are government, two thirds of those are commercial. I would add that the vast majority of their end-users are probably government customers,” he explains.
He continues by saying that the commercial customers come on board as secondary adopters as prices come down to match their margins.
“We have got a range of marketplaces that we are very focused on, in terms of government and commercial security. The other areas are regulatory and the environment – so anywhere the regulator wants to know what is happening around the Earth, whether it is in the fishing markets or the spectrum utilization market, there are opportunities there as well for us. Our conversion in the pipeline is predominantly the government customer base.”
“The long term aspiration is to increase the breadth of our offering and become the go to RF Geolcation company of choice worldwide.“
Andy Bowyer
Heavy Infrastructure
One might instantly about potential data theft, but Kleos Space assures us that the data itself is protected with encryption at the satellites and also on the ground. Nonetheless, one must keep in mind how expansive the infrastructure is.
“Kleos Space is developing and deploying a constellation of up to 20 satellite clusters, creating useful revisit rates over key areas of interest. The satellites detect and geolocate radio frequency activity to improve the detection of hidden and illegal activity and are able to detect transmissions independent of other systems even in instances when the Automatic Identification System (AIS) is defeated, imagery is unclear, or targets are out of patrol range” says Bowyer.
This capability seeks to geolocate emissions from State or Non-State actors intent on hiding their positions from tracking systems or other surveillance and monitoring technologies or systems.
“Our roadmap includes deployment of new clusters in a short timeframe which will increase our accuracy, latency, and support of a wide number of intelligence, defense, security, and commercial missions such as: enhanced situational awareness, land and sea border control, regulatory framework monitoring, search and rescue, resource management, fisheries monitoring, monitoring of illegal trafficking, smuggling, and illegal transshipments and embargo and sanctions enforcement among other use cases”, says Bowyer.
Future Launches
Having already launched three clusters, Kleos Space”s fourth cluster, Observer Mission, is targeted for a mid-2022 launch. These satellite clusters form the foundation of a global high-capacity constellation of up to 20 satellite clusters, which will deliver high-value global observation.
In a spy movie one could imagine Kleos Space being approached by some unsavory clientele, but Bowyer says they have a strict and robust KYC (Know Your Customer) process.
“Within the company we have individuals with considerable international experience and are fully aware of which countries are considered friendly by NATO and EU member states. Those who are a potential threat or have sanctions imposed against them will clearly not be considered,” he says.
As their short term goals they state launching their next clusters and always improving the technology. In the long-term they are looking at growing their revenue and improving coverage and data acquisitions.
“The short term goal of the company is to deliver valuable RF Geolocation data into customers hands as quickly as possible in volumes. The long term aspiration is to increase the breadth of our offering and become the go to RF Geolcation company of choice worldwide“, says Bowyer, who confirms they still think of themselves as a startup.
