Defence sector venture capital firm Beaten Zone Venture Partners has led a $25 million Series A round for space intelligence company HEO Space.
The round was supported by the federal government-financed National Reconstruction Fund, Washington-based Dcode Capital, Wunala Capital and existing investors Airtree and defence sector specialist Salus Ventures.
Sydney-based HEO, which was founded in 2016, operates the world’s largest commercial non-Earth imaging network, with access to more than 50 sensors in orbit.
The company combines imagery from cameras aboard existing Earth-observation satellites with data from its own proprietary sensors. HEO’s autonomous software identifies imaging opportunities, tasks cameras, processes the resulting imagery and applies AI-powered analysis to provide intelligence about spacecraft and other objects in orbit. As servicing, inspection, defence and autonomous missions becomes more common, satellite operators will increasingly want to draw on such timely visual intelligence about the condition and behaviour of the objects around their satellites before they make critical decisions.
Conventional monitoring of objects in space provide information on their location but, generally, little more. With thousands of spacecraft now operating in increasingly congested orbits, and some performing complex manoeuvres or connecting with other assets, space operations now require much more information but commercially available imagery of space craft remains limited.
The new funding will accelerate HEO’s expansion from low Earth orbit operations into geostationary orbit (GEO) where many of the most valuable telecommunications, weather and national security satellites operate.
HEO has booked its first two GEO launches to take place before then end of this year and plans to establish reliable, repeatable GEO imaging coverage during 2027. The funding will support new sensor deployments, expanded partnerships with satellite operators and continued development of the software and AI models needed to turn orbital imagery into actionable intelligence.
Beaten Zone Ventures founder and lead investor Steve Baxter said: “HEO has created a new data type for space domain awareness at a time when the number of space objects is growing exponentially. Expanding to GEO makes them the first mover in a validated government-demand market and will unlock further capabilities for their expanding customer base. We believe they are on track to become one of Australia’s most important defence industry unicorns.”
NRCF chief executive David Gall added: “The NRFC’s investment will enable HEO to monitor 90% of space objects of interest to Australian and allied defence and intelligence agencies, shoring up a critical sovereign defence capability.”
HEO co-founder and chief executive Dr William Crowe said: “This funding allows us to extend out network into GEO and brings us closer to a future where governments and satellite operators can inspect any object in space when they need to.”
Airtree Ventures led HEO’s $12 million Series A round in 2023.
In addition to Australia, HEO has established offices in the UK and the US.
Image: Image of China’s Space Station taken by HEO using its BlackSky sensor technology.