- Thursday, April 18, 2024
By: Shilpa Sharma
INDIA’S Bharti Global will invest $500 million (£362m) in the UK-based space start-up OneWeb, becoming the biggest shareholder in the satellite provider.
With the deal, billionaire Sunil Mittal-run Bharti Group, will now own a 39 per cent stake in OneWeb, which it along with the UK government had rescued from bankruptcy last year.
The deal is expected to complete in the second half of this year.
The amount will help OneWeb launch more commercial satellites into space later this year.
OneWeb is building a network of low Earth orbit satellites to deliver broadband connections around the world.
“In just a year and during a global pandemic, together we have transformed OneWeb, bringing the operation back to full-scale. With this round of financing, we complete the funding requirements,” Bharti Global’s managing director Shravin Mittal said in a statement.
In total, the company has secured $2.4 billion (£1.7bn) of funding to deliver on its ambitions. Paris-based Eutelsat took a stake in OneWeb with a $550m (£398m) investment in April.
Japanese technology giant SoftBank is also a key investor in OneWeb.
After completion of the deal, the UK government, Eutelsat and SoftBank will each own 19.3 per cent, OneWeb said in a statement.
UK business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the deal indicates confidence in the company.
“It’s clear that investors see a strong future for this incredible, cutting-edge company and a robust commercial case for investment,” Kwarteng said.
Earlier, the British government was criticised for using taxpayer money to rescue a bankrupt company at the time of the bailout.
To improve rural broadband coverage in the country, the UK government has also launched ‘Project Gigabit’.
OneWeb competes with other providers such as Jeff Bezos’ Project Kuiper and Elon Musk’s Starlink.
The space start-up currently has 218 satellites, and is due to launch a further 36 on Thursday (1).
