The company said the funding round – led by Future Ventures and Seraphim Space – was oversubscribed and new investors NGP Capital, Industrious Ventures, Murata Electronics, Space Capital, and Aloniq took part.

Xona says the investment will be used to accelerate the deployment of its low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite network. Specifically, it will begin beta operations of its PULSAR satellite service, which aims to provide “the robust precision guidance needed for intelligent and autonomous technologies to scale beyond highly structured environments”.

“A century ago, people looked to the North Star for trusted guidance when other methods were unavailable,” said Brian Manning, CEO and co-founder of Xona. “AI and automation are the future – our PULSAR service aims to be for these industries what the North Star was for humanity in previous centuries.”

One of the investors was the UK-based Seraphim Space, which highlighted the modern importance of GPS.

“After half a century of use, our dependence on GPS is absolute. Outages could cause incalculable damage to the global economy, while enhancement opens up whole new industries,” said Rob Desborough, General Partner at Seraphim Space.