Kymeta raises $50 million to expand its satellite communications antenna business

The company is pioneering the use of patened materials that allow the antenna’s to angle towards satellites without moving parts, allowing for light, adaptable antennas for use on trains, planes and other moving vehicles. See our recent story on the company here.

Here’s the press release:

Kymeta Closes $50 Million Series C Financing To Transform Satellite Communications

REDMOND, Wash. July 9, 2013 Kymeta Corporation announced today that it has successfully closed a $50 million Series C financing to accelerate the companys growth plans. Kymeta, a privately held technology company, designs and manufactures satellite communication antennas and systems. Existing Kymeta investors including Bill Gates, Lux Capital and Liberty Global were joined in the financing by Osage University Partners and The Kresge Foundation.

The company is pioneering the use of patented metamaterials technology that dynamically steers antenna beams with no moving parts, resulting in flat, thin, light, and highly adaptable antennas and communication terminals. This unique capability opens numerous new opportunities in the satellite industry to provide new broadband mobile services and highly-flexible portable and fixed services to a wide range of applications. Both CNBC and MIT Technology Review recently recognized Kymeta as one of the Top 50 Most Disruptive Technology Companies in the World.

We are fortunate to have earned this level of sponsorship, said Kymeta Chief Executive Officer Vern Fotheringham. It is a clear testament to the progress weve made to date proving our unique technology is poised to make significant contributions to the advancement of global broadband connectivity enabling high-speed communication services to businesses, consumers, governments and NGOs regardless of their location worldwide.

Lux Capital is extraordinarily excited about the market potential for Kymetas technology, said Josh Wolfe, managing partner at Lux Capital and a Kymeta board member. In just the past few months, Kymeta has entered into commercial development agreements with several of the satellite industrys leading service providers and were really only getting started.

In addition, Fotheringham announced several key promotions on Kymetas senior leadership team, including the promotion of Bob McCambridge to president and chief operating officer. Co-founder Dr. Nathan Kundtz was promoted to executive vice president and chief technology officer, and John Schilling to executive vice president and chief financial officer.

Our leadership team has executed flawlessly since inception, and exceeded every metric that we established to measure our progress, said Fotheringham. I have tremendous confidence in their capabilities. Their combined contributions have underscored our rapid progress that inspired the confidence our existing and new investors have demonstrated with this significant financing. Kymeta is now positioned to move from our period of technology refinement into the product development stage leading to the commercial launch of our game changing solutions.

Kymeta is leading the commercialization of metamaterials-based innovation in satellite communications, stated Casey Tegreene, executive vice president at Intellectual Ventures and a Kymeta board member. We are thrilled to see the rapid progress since the spinout from Intellectual Ventures in August 2012.