Seraphim portfolio company Spire Global has made headlines in the last week, showcasing its new service of GNSS reflectometry. Spire is one of the leading NewSpace companies, operating a constellation of over 80 cubesats with a variety of sensors that collect data and generate insights for weather forecasting services as well as tracking ships and aircraft.

It has continued to expand its suite of products with the GNSS reflectometry which it first demonstrated at the American Meteorological Society from two of its demonstrator cubesats equipped with bistatic radars. These radars pick up transmitted signals from government GNSS satellites that reflect off Earth's surface, that are normally used to make sure that your smartphone can figure out its location. According to the nature of the returning signal, Spire can decipher insights from Earth’s surface. For example, the amount of moisture in soil and the ripples on the surface of the water impact how the signal is reflected. This means that with the use of known algorithms, the data can be used to calculate wind speeds over oceans and soil moisture over land. This type data is important for applications in weather forecasting and agriculture. Having now demonstrated the technology, Spire is developing two more GNSS Reflectometry cubesats to launch later this year.

A few months ago we announced our participation in Spire's Series D funding round - we are delighted to continue supporting the company through this period of growth.