Laser comms startup Transcelestial raises US$10 million led by Airbus Ventures

TRANSCELESTIAL has raised US$10 million in a Series A2 funding round led by Airbus Ventures, as it works on developing its wireless laser communications technology to bring superfast Internet connectivity to the masses.

Of the total funds raised in the round, US$3 million comprised venture debt from Genesis Alternative Ventures. Other participants in the round include Kickstart Ventures; Wavemaker; Seeds Capital; and Cap Vista, the strategic investment arm of Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency.

In-Q-Tel, which makes investments that serve the national security interests of the US and its allies, joined a previous undisclosed funding round in Transcelestial.

Singapore-based Transcelestial said the funds will be used to ramp up growth in Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.

It is working with telecom companies, Internet service providers and enterprise partners to deliver 4G, home and office broadband and campus connectivity.

“A great case study in 2022 was the urgent connectivity to a group of islands in Malaysia we provided, which allowed for dozens of villages downstream to livestream the Fifa World Cup, and also use it for education, healthcare and financial transformation,” said chief executive officer and co-founder Rohit Jha in a statement.

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Transcelestial plans to enter the US market soon. It intends to explore collaborations over 12 months with government, enterprise and telecom leaders in select states.

The company’s manufacturing facility in Singapore has the capacity to manufacture up to 2,400 Centauri devices annually. The device allows companies to set up last-mile connectivity with fibre-like speeds, at a fraction of the deployment time and cost.

“Transcelestial’s laser communications platform Centauri is a best in class solution for low cost, high bandwidth terrestrial communications,” said Clayton Williams, managing director (Australia) at In-Q-Tel. “We are excited to help expand this capability to enable a space-based data backhaul for secure point-to-point communications from the US and anywhere on Earth.”