SoftBank Invests $15 Mn in Sceye’s High-Altitude Climate Stations

Japan’s SoftBank Corp. has agreed to invest $15 million in Sceye Inc., a startup that builds massive, bullet-shaped helium balloons that float in the stratosphere, to monitor climate data and bring connectivity to hard-to-reach areas, reported Bloomberg.

The company has built more than 20 of its zeppelin-like airships located at a 41,600-square-foot warehouse in New Mexico. The vehicles– technically called high-altitude platform stations– are 214 feet long, almost the size of a Boeing 747’s wingspan, and are equipped with specialised cameras and radars.

Sceye’s High-Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS) are designed to stay airborne in the stratosphere – between 60,000 ft and 65,000 ft – for months to a year at a time to gather real-time data on wildfires, flooding and greenhouse gases. Operating above commercial air traffic and weather systems but below satellites, they are also capable of providing wireless service to people on the ground during large-scale disasters.

The company’s Chief Executive Officer Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen told Bloomberg that he expected SoftBank — the telecom unit of the tech conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. — to be an important strategic partner to the startup. “As a telephone company, it knows the limitations of towers and fiber optic cables and satellite constellations,” Frandsen said. “This is a critical area for them to come into,” he added.

Founded in 2014, the company has reached a valuation of $580 million following its latest funding round. The company’s other investors include Saudi-based Mawarid Holding Company.

From Prototype to Proof

Sceye (pronounced “sky”) began testing its high-tech balloons nine years ago with a much smaller prototype. Last year, the company led its first “full diurnal flight,” meaning one of its stations stayed afloat in an area for more than 24 hours — a feat Frandsen said helped prove the efficacy of its strategy to stay operational using solar power in the day and batteries at night.

With its new funding and SoftBank partnership, next year Sceye plans to fly one of its stratospheric platforms to Japan, where it will offer broadband services for a multi-week period before returning to New Mexico. The demonstration will be one of the last steps the company will take before it’s ready to sell its product commercially, Frandsen said.

According to another report by Reuters, the company announced its partnership with NASA and the US Geological Survey on October 29, 2024 for environmental monitoring, imaging and data collection from the vantage point of the stratosphere.