Totum Labs raises $13mn for satellite IoT connectivity

San Diego, California-based Totum Labs is a satellite IoT connectivity company focusing on the tracking of assets from space.

The company is combining Low Power Wide Area IoT connections with satellite tracking using its Doppler Multichannel Spread Spectrum (DMSS) technology, which allows for the tracking and monitoring of assets globally at a low cost.

Totum Labs has developed a System on a Chip (SOC) with built in DMSS to enable low power sensors to communicate with satellites, powered by batteries with a life of over ten years.

Since its foundation two years ago, the company has raised over $15mn Its latest series A round was led by space economy-focused Space Capital and early stage venture capital fund Heroic Ventures, raising $13mn. Also participating were existing investors including Qamcom and the co-founder of semiconductor giant Qualcomm.

In a press release, Ted Myers, Founder and CEO of Totum Labs, said: "Others that have launched satellites are not on a technical path to scale to billions of connections and they will largely be limited to high value, low-volume endpoints historically associated with satellite connectivity. Only Totum's DMSS technology can go head-to-head with the cellular industry for LPWA connectivity and provide a robust and cost-effective connectivity experience for a massive number of endpoint connections across a wide variety of industry use cases."

The company said the funding would allow it to more rapidly commercialise its low power sensor to satellite network.

"Totum has a dominant waveform with an unparalleled link budget that positions the company to unlock the massive LPWA asset tracking and monitoring market," said Matt Robinson, Founder and Managing Partner of Heroic Ventures. "The Totum team has unmatched LPWA communications technical expertise and we are thrilled to support them."

"We see Totum's deep communications expertise and DMSS technology as highly differentiated from other players who come to the market as a pure satellite industry orientation," said Tom Ingersoll, Managing Director of Space Capital.