Edmonton-based Wyvern Space got a new vote of confidence in their hyperspectral imaging technology this week with the announcement of a successful seed round and their acceptance in the Y Combinator accelerator.
The new seed round closed oversubscribed at USD $2.25M, and followed another USD $2.25M of combined pre-seed funding and Government of Canada support. MaC Venture capital led the seed round, with other investors including Liquid 2 Ventures, Gaingels, Unpopular Ventures, Soma Capital and Matt Mickiewicz. Wyvern CEO Chris Robson said that the investments have “supercharged our company,” and said that these seed and pre-seed rounds of funding will secure Wyvern’s first three satellite launches, giving them the opportunity to demonstrate their imaging capabilities to potential customers.
Hyperspectral imaging is a new technology that takes Earth observation imaging to the next level. It uses large arrays of small cameras, each gathering images at a single wavelength, then combines the signals to create 3D data blocks that can contain a tremendous amount of information about a given geographical area, right down to the spectra of each individual pixel. There’s already been tremendous interest in the technology in fields like medicine, food processing, chemical imaging and astronomy.
Wyvern is looking to bring that technology into orbit for earth observation that can be used for everything from agriculture, to defence, forestry and mineralogy. Their SmallSats are being designed to use deployable optics, an “unfolding telescope” that gives them the light-collecting-area they need to make hyperspectral imagery work while reducing the cost of manufacturing and orbital deployment. It’s already been announced that Wyvern’s satellites will be designed and manufactured by AAC Clyde Space. In an interview with SpaceQ, Wyvern’s Chris Robson said that Clyde will also be arranging the launch and operating the satellites, sending the data back to Wyvern as part of a “Data as a Service” model.
First, though, they’ll be going through the intensive three month Y Combinator accelerator process. Wyvern already has accelerator experience, having graduated from the Space Stream of the University of Toronto’s Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), but Y Combinator brings incredible prestige as the accelerator behind AirBnB, Reddit, Stripe and Dropbox.
Robson said to SpaceQ that Y Combinator “puts companies in an environment where they can talk to their peers, learn from industry veterans, and grow and accelerate really quickly. Living in Edmonton is great, but it’s really hard to have the experience and environment that you see in Silicon Valley. It’s going to totally change us as founders and us as a business.“ This Y Combinator cohort will be a “virtual” Y Combinator due to the Omicron variant outbreaks, and Robson admitted that “it will make it more challenging.” He said that “there are certain experiences you can’t have virtually.” He is confident, however, that they “will still be able to form good relationships and social bonds” that will help them grow their business.
He also reiterated that they plan to remain in Edmonton despite acknowledging the advantages of working with Silicon Valley. Robson said “there are a lot of things we can do and companies we can reach as a Canadian company”, especially natural resources companies. Robson said that hyperspectral imaging is useful for “anything that involves large remote assets or operations,” whether in Canada or abroad, and that they’re seeking customers in those spaces.
Robson said in their announcement that with their new funding they were proud to bring former AirBus CTO Christine Tovee on board. He said to SpaceQ that they’d already “formed a really great relationship with her” going back to their time at CDL, and that someone with her industry experience and expertise would help “map out our future and our future technology development.”
The money has allowed them to nearly double their team, according to their release, and Robson told Spaceq that that included hiring a significant number of sales- and marketing-focused people. He also said that getting experienced optics and opto-mechanical engineers is a high priority, and that “the more we find these experienced people, the faster we can move”. Wyvern is hoping to find approriate engineers in Canada, as “it can be tough to find those people in the States and bring them to Canada.”
MaC Venture Capital’s Managing General Partner, Adrian Fenty, has also joined up with Wyvern as part of their Board of Directors. He said that Wyvern will “open a lot of new doors in the Earth observation market” and that it will “entirely change the way we use satellite imagery.”
Wyvern is looking to launch these first three satellites of their planned 27-satellite constellation in late 2022, and are hoping to begin bringing customers in early 2023. Robson said that their newly-bolstered sales and marketing team already helped them to attract the interest of a variety of large companies as customers or potential customers. They’ll have more to announce as they get closer to 2023.