South Australian Satellite Connectivity Co. Myriota Raises $28 Mn to Fund Global Expansion

Myriota will use the latest round of funding to increase its constellation of satellites to 25 and further its global expansion as a leader in low-cost and low-power Internet of Things (IoT) satellite connectivity.

Myriota’s technology involves tiny satellite transmitters that send low powered messages directly to a constellation of low-earth-orbit nanosatellites. These satellites relay the messages to earth where they are decoded and sent to the end user. The technology is particularly effective in remote areas on land or at sea that do not have access to internet or cellular networks

The company will also use the Series B funding to grow its workforce by 50 per cent in the next two years, allowing it to connect billions of devices to power energy-efficient technology and serve demand in key international markets.

Myriota raised A$15 million in Series A funding in 2018 and said all of those participants returned to take part in Series B.

The latest funding round brings Mryriota’s total funding to A$50 million, including investments from Hostplus, Main Sequence Ventures, In-Q-Tel and former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

CEO and co-founder Alex Grant said the latest round of funding would break down cost-prohibitive barriers and assist in maximising efficiency.

“This is a critical time for IoT. Presently 90 per cent of the earth’s surface lacks connectivity. At Myriota, we’ve been focused on filling that gap and overcoming constraints in existing infrastructure,” Dr Grant said.

“With this new round of funding, we’ll continue to grow our network of satellites to deliver an affordable, environmentally friendly and powerful solution to make data accessible for our global customer base."

The announcement is the latest in a string of expansions for Myriota, which has become a global leader in nanosatellite IoT connectivity and is based at Lot Fourteen – an innovation precinct in Adelaide, South Australia, which is also home of the Australian Space Agency.

Myriota was spun out of the University of South Australia in 2015 with funding from Canada-based data services company exactEarth.

Last month, the South Australian start-up announced it had furthered its partnership with exactEarth to acquire satellite communications assets.

The acquisition, which is subject to Canadian regulatory approval, signified the creation of Myriota’s first North American office, in Ontario, Canada.

It provides Myriota with four exactEath experts in satellite operations, satellite engineering and spectrum management.

The CA$600,000 deal also increases Myriota’s capacity to deliver low-cost, low-power, secure direct-to-orbit satellite connectivity for IoT through four satellites and a global network of ground states assets.

Dr Grant said despite challenging global business conditions the company was in a fortunate position to continue its international expansion plans and allow multiple industries to access its technology.

“This acquisition is a huge opportunity for our business to grow its North American footprint,” he said.

“It will add industry-leading capabilities in key areas such as satellite operations, engineering and spectrum management from an experienced team and will fast-track our development with established ground facilities and ground stations.”

South Australia has been a significant player in the nation’s space industry and is home to major Tier 1 defence companies, the SmartSat CRC and several other emerging space start-ups, including Fleet Space Technologies and Inovor Technologies.

In 2018 Adelaide was announced as the home of the Australian Space Agency, to which a $6 million Mission Control Centre for small satellite missions and an educational Discovery Centre was added in 2019.

Researchers developing Pandemic Drone that could Detect Virus Symptoms in Crowds

A drone to remotely detect people in crowds with infectious respiratory conditions such as COVID-19 is being developed by University of South Australia researchers in partnership with a Canadian tech company.

Dubbed the ‘pandemic drone’ by researchers, the UAV will be fitted with a specialised sensor and computer vision system that can monitor temperature, heart and respiratory rates, as well as detect people sneezing and coughing in crowds, offices, airports, cruise ships, aged care homes and other places where groups congregate.

The University of South Australia (UniSA) team, led by Defence Chair of Sensor Systems Professor Javaan Chahl, will work with North American drone technology company Draganfly Inc to immediately start integrating commercial, medical and government customers.

Algorithms for measuring temperature and detecting coughing and sneezing movements are still being optimised at their lab in Adelaide, South Australia.

“There’s a lot of engineering going on right now but the aspiration is to have this in some sort of initial capability within six months,” Professor Chahl said.

“It’s one thing to have it work in a science experiment type scenario but getting it to run in the field on a real piece of hardware is quite a challenge.”

Professor Chahl, right, and his team achieved global recognition in 2017 when they demonstrated image-processing algorithms that could extract a human’s heart rate from drone video.

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Since then they have demonstrated that heart rate and breathing rate can be measured with high accuracy within 5-10 metres of people, using drones and at distances of up to 50 metres with fixed cameras. They have also developed algorithms that can interpret human actions such as sneezing and coughing.

The research has previously looked at using the drones to monitor and react to elderly falls, look for signs of life in war zones or following a natural disaster and monitoring the heart rates babies in neonatal incubators.

Professor Chahl (left) and his team achieved global recognition in 2017 when they demonstrated image-processing algorithms that could extract a human’s heart rate from drone video.

Since then they have demonstrated that heart rate and breathing rate can be measured with high accuracy within 5-10 metres of people, using drones and at distances of up to 50 metres with fixed cameras. They have also developed algorithms that can interpret human actions such as sneezing and coughing.

The research has previously looked at using the drones to monitor and react to elderly falls, look for signs of life in war zones or following a natural disaster and monitoring the heart rates babies in neonatal incubators.

Professor Chahl said the technology was being adapted and fast tracked to potentially become a viable screening tool for the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had always thought the technology could be used for something like this but we also thought that this was something down the track as a nasty possibility,” he said.

“Now, shockingly, we see a need for its use immediately, to help save lives in the biggest health catastrophe the world has experienced in the past 100 years.”

“It might not detect all cases, but it could be a reliable tool to detect the presence of the disease in a place or in a group of people.”

Draganfly CEO Cameron Chell said the Canadian company would use its sensor, software and engineering expertise to work with UniSA to integrate and deploy for government, medical and commercial customers.

“We are honoured to work on such an important project given the current pandemic facing the world with COVID-19,” he said.

“Health and respiratory monitoring will be vital not only for detection but also to understand health trends.”