Challenging GPS: Xona raises $250 million for its own navigation network
The California start-up plans to deliver centimetre-level positioning with about 258 satellites. It is now valued at $2.45 billion.
Symbolic image · Photo: Bill Ingalls / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (cropped and resized)
California space start-up Xona has raised $250 million in a new funding round that values it at $2.45 billion. The round was led by Future Ventures, co-founded by Steve Jurvetson, a member of SpaceX's board. In total, Xona has raised more than $570 million since it was founded in 2019. The money is meant to speed up satellite production: the company aims to build 50 a year by the end of 2027.
With Pulsar, Xona plans a commercial navigation network of about 258 satellites in low Earth orbit as a complement and alternative to the US GPS system. The company says its signals are 100 times stronger than those of legacy GPS satellites, harder to jam and accurate to the centimetre. Six satellites have already been launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9. Service is due to begin in 2027. "We started the year with technically an empty warehouse, and now we have a functional satellite factory," Chief Executive Brian Manning told Forbes.