Beyond GPS: Xona Raises $92M to Revolutionize Global Positioning with Pulsar Constellation

Satellite navigation startup Xona Space Systems has secured $92 million in new funding through a Series B offering. The latest tranche brings the Silicon Valley venture's total funding to over $150 million. The company wants to use the new capital to accelerate the transition from research and development to delivery at scale, while growing production from a single satellite to hundreds in low earth orbit.

Xona raised $19 million in 2024 in a Series A round, after 11 prior seeding rounds and grants, led by Future Ventures and Seraphim Space. NGP Capital, Industrious Ventures, Murata Electronics, Space Capital and Aloniq joined the offering. More investors participated in the Series B round, including Craft Ventures, Stellar Ventures, Toyota Ventures and First Spark. 

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The infusion also included a $20 million award from SpaceWERX, which is operated by the U.S. Space Force. 

The startup is designing the PULSAR high-performance network and navigation service, calling it the first "satellite positioning, navigation and timing infrastructure in low Earth orbit." A test satellite was launched in 2022 but the full constellation will take years to deploy. Aerospacelab will build and launch the satellites under a 2024 agreement. Next launches are scheduled for late 2026, followed by the commercial network rollout in 2027. 

According to the company, legacy GPS satellites orbit the planet at 12,500 miles while the PULSAR will deliver payloads into low earth orbit at just 670 miles. To support their tech, Xona has released a software development kit that partners and potential customers can use to build compatible receivers and chipsets. Simulator partners Spirent Federal Systems, Safran and Syntony are currently working with Xona on project design.

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Xona wants to deploy satellites just above ultralow earth orbit, a high-drag, largely untapped zone below about 300 miles altitude. That trajectory is at the low end of the next-higher segment, up to about 1,240 miles, which is populated with over 40,000 objects. The traffic jam is reaching critical limits, compounded by 1.2 million smaller debris fragments. This raises the danger of collisions, destruction of expensive systems and threat of debris striking the planet. 

PULSAR technology has major defense applications, according to Xona, touting "encrypted, authenticated signals 100x more powerful" than standard navigation systems, that can "withstand interference, jamming, and spoofing." This has stoked the U.S. military's interest because, as the Iran-Israel war illustrated, combatants now jam GPS to confuse missile guidance and interfere with pilot communications. 

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The company also expects the space tech will boost efficiency in numerous commercial operations, including autonomous driving systems, agriculture, mining and construction. Xona's 29 investors have high hopes for the satellite rollout, with multiple successful funding rounds supporting that confidence. 

"After half a century of use, our dependence on GPS is absolute, Seraphim General Partner Rob Desborough warned. "Outages could cause incalculable damage to the global economy, while enhancement opens up whole new industries. Waiting for GPS to fail, or for hostile powers to spoof it, is not an option for our security or commercial industries."

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