Allied Minds Conditionally Agrees to Sell Stake in HawkEye 360
HERNDON, Va., September 24, 2019 (Newswire.com) - HawkEye 360, the first commercial company to use formation flying satellites to create a new class of radio frequency (RF) analytics, today announced its founding investor, Allied Minds, has conditionally agreed to sell its entire stake to Advance. Advance has also committed to investing primary capital into HawkEye 360’s previously announced Series B fundraising round and joining its board of directors concurrent with the closing of the transaction.
Based in New York, Advance is a family-owned business that invests in a broad range of technology, media and communications companies globally. This transaction marks Advance’s second investment in the space industry.
HawkEye 360 was founded as one of Allied Minds’ portfolio companies in 2015. The company’s pioneering geospatial data layer reveals patterns of activity and provides valuable insights for maritime, intelligence, telecommunications and crisis response applications. In December 2018, HawkEye 360 launched its first satellites able to identify and geolocate RF signals and recently announced the development of a next-generation constellation that will further expand existing capabilities.
“We value Advance’s commitment to HawkEye 360,” said John Serafini, Chief Executive Officer, HawkEye 360. “The backing of this strategic investor further affirms our business plan and recognizes that our products and solutions bring significant value to market. Advance will be a great partner as we move forward with scaling our business.”
“We’re excited to partner with HawkEye 360 at this inflection point in its business,” said Janine Shelffo, Chief Strategy and Development Officer, Advance. “At Advance, we’re committed to backing innovative companies that capitalize on the most disruptive long-term trends. HawkEye 360’s satellites and proprietary analytics provide a powerful new dataset that increases global transparency. We look forward to supporting the company as it builds out its constellation.”
The sale of Hawkeye 360 shares owned by Allied Minds to Advance is subject to approval by Allied Minds’ shareholders. Allied Minds has received confirmations of intention to vote in favor of the transaction from shareholders representing an aggregate of approximately 58.0% of its issued share capital, comprised of irrevocable undertakings from holders of 36.4% of its shares and non-binding letters of support from holders of an additional 21.6% of its shares. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019.
About HawkEye 360
HawkEye 360 is a U.S. commercial Radio Frequency (RF) data analytics company. We operate a first-of-its-kind commercial satellite constellation to identify, process, and geolocate a broad set of RF signals. We extract value from this unique data through proprietary algorithms, fusing it with other sources to create powerful analytical products that solve hard challenges for our global customers. Our products include maritime domain awareness and spectrum mapping and monitoring; our customers include a wide range of commercial, government and international entities. More information about HawkEye 360 can be found at www.he360.com.
About Advance
Advance is a private, family-owned business that owns, operates and invests in assets spanning media, communications, technology and other promising growth sectors. Our mission is to build the value of our companies over the long term by fostering growth and innovation. Advance’s portfolio includes Condé Nast, Advance Local, Stage Entertainment, American City Business Journals, Leaders Group, Turnitin, 1010data and Pop. Together these operating companies employ more than 15,000 people in 18 countries. Advance is also among the largest shareholders in Charter Communications, Discovery and reddit. www.advance.com
Media Contacts
Adam Bennett
Product Marketing Director
adam@he360.com
+1 (571) 203-0360
Naomi Tudhope
Senior Associate, Strategy and Communications
ntudhope@advance.com
+1 (212) 286-5641
Source: HawkEye 360
