You'll love Transcelestial. This Singaporean B2B startup just raised $10M in a Series A2 round to use lasers to build accessible high-speed internet networks!

Investor check. Airbus Ventures led the round. Kickstart Ventures, Genesis Alternative Ventures, Wavemaker, Cap Vista and SEEDS Captial also joined in!

• Founded in 2016, they've raised a total of $24M.
• In-Q-Tel joined in a previous undisclosed round.

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🤨 Why it matters

The way internet infrastructure is built right now prevents people from having quality internet access. Plus, small cities and towns are typically left behind, and internet distribution is expensive too!

• They usually use underground and undersea cables, which are expensive to install.
• They also use radio-frequency-based devices that are complex to license.

This keeps millions of people away from education, healthcare, financial information and more opportunities that could transform their livelihoods.

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⭐️ The great news?

Transcelestial doesn't use the cables or devices we mentioned earlier. So, their solutions are faster to deploy and cheaper.

• Bye, slow WiFi. Transcelestial allows reliable, scalable high-speed internet.

Instead, they have easy-to-setup shoebox-sized devices called Centauri. These devices send laser beams to each other to create a wireless network between buildings, cell towers, street-level poles and other physical infrastructure!

• It can connect a few buildings in less than a day and can handle tough weather and high capacities.

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🧑🏻‍🚀 Give me some (outer) space

They've got sky-high plans to head to outer space, and they're working on bringing their technology to a low-earth-orbit (LEO) constellation.

• The plan? Use a laser network in outer space to directly distribute internet to cities and towns on earth.

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🌏 Worldwide

The new $$$ is mainly to speed up their growth in SEA and India through key markets like Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, where Transcelestial is already active!

• They work with telecomms, ISPs, and enterprise partners to deploy their systems and deliver 4G, home and office broadband, and campus connectivity.

Going beyond! They'll now be expanding outside of Asia through collaborations in select states in the US.

• Oh, and they're beefing up their Singapore-based manufacturing facility, which already has the highest deployment volume among lasercomms producers globally.