US-based nanosatellite company Spire raised $25m in series A funding on Tuesday in a round that included participation from conglomerate Mitsui and anitvirus software producer Qihoo 360.
Venture capital firm RRE Ventures led the round, which also featured Mitsui Global Investment, a corporate venturing subsidiary of Mitsui, Qihoo 360 and Moose Capital.
Founded in 2012, Spire was initially incubated by hardware accelertor Lemnos Labs. It provides data on weather, trade and other marine factors from any point on earth, sourced from four small form satellites it has launched into space.
The company, which was previously known as Nanosatisfi, will use the additional funds to fulfill customer demand, grow its staff and open a new office in Singapore. It plans to scale to more than 50 satellites in future.
Spire raised just over $100,000 from crowd-funding website Kickstarter in 2012, subsequently securing $1.2m in seed funding in February 2013 from Beamonte Investments, Emerge, Lemnos Labs and Shasta Ventures. Robotics-focused investment firm Grishin Robotics provided $300,000 for Spire in July 2013.