State government venture capital fund Breakthrough Victoria is to invest $37 million to bring operations of a US company to the state.
The investment is to be made in Tucson, Arizona-based stratospheric balloon exploration company World View.
The investment will see World View establish its Indo-Pacific headquarters in Melbourne. The company will also establish an advanced manufacturing facility in Victoria, creating up to 200 jobs in engineering, mission control and flight operations, and data and material sciences.
Announcing the investment on 3 May, Breakthrough Victoria said World View was at the forefront of manufacturing, launching and controlling stratospheric balloons that provide on-demand, high-resolution sensing, weather monitoring, and communication services. Future plans included moving into space tourism.
In addition to creating jobs, World View’s Victorian operations will establish Victoria as a hub for stratospheric remote sensing research which will flow on to investments in R&D across Australian universities and research centres, according to Breakthrough Victoria.
World View chief executive Ryan M. Hartman said: “Australia, especially Victoria, offers access to incredibly skilled talent, cutting-edge technology, promising partnerships, smart capital and significant geographic leverage to support our Indo-Pacific remote sensing and future space tourism operations.”
In February, World View announced “the successful opening and initial funding” of a Series D investment round led by strategic partner SNC. The company gave no financial details of the funding and has not announced closure of the round.
World View said the Series D funding was specifically to support “increasing demand for high-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities identified by the US Army, Air Force and Department of Defense and global defence forces”.
Image: A World View high-altitude balloon.