I’m excited to announce that HEO Robotics has raised a seed financing round, led by the legendary British investor David Harding, the CEO and founder of Winton. David has championed the use of the scientific method and empirical evidence in his business endeavours and this manifests in the ventures that Winton invests into as a part of its ventures division, values that we want to embody at HEO Robotics. As part of the investment, David has nominated Joshua Kennedy-White to the company board, who has a wealth of experience investing in and advising technology companies.
Angel investors Tim Parsons, Matt Ryall, Christian Thaler-Wolski and Phil Hayes-St Clair also participated in the round, while existing HEO investors like Solai Valliappan doubled-down on their holdings. These investors have generally been advising and supporting HEO Robotics for multiple years and we’re glad that they’ll be able to share in the company’s future successes.
This seed financing capital will be used to grow the world’s first in-orbit inspection product, HEO Inspect, which is already live in beta and used by customers today. The capital will allow us to scale our services to help monitor the 40x increase in satellite numbers to be launched over the next 10 years. As this kind of service has never been available before, the new capital will help us support our customers as the space industry learns together to operate more sustainably in space.
A sample image from HEO Inspect is shown below, taken of the International Space Station in February 2021. We use computer vision techniques to generate insights from the images we collect, allowing customers to make informed decisions on how best to operate their satellites, particularly when they can’t access on-board sensor data.
HEO Inspect sample image of the international space station, taken in February 2021. Insights from the images that HEO Robotics takes can drive informed decision-making for satellite operators.
David Harding provided the following quote: “I am pleased to have had the opportunity to back founders Will and Hiranya and HEO Robotics, which looks to have considerable potential in the burgeoning commercial space industry”.
I see the investment in companies like ours as a real step forward in creating an in-space economy and making space sustainable for generations to come. Thanks to everyone who has helped us get this far and looking forward to sharing our next steps as they happen!
Will - HEO Robotics CEO
HEO Robotics founders Hiranya Jayakody (left) and William Crowe (right)
