TAMPA, Fla. — Satellite broadband startup OneWeb has secured $300 million of strategic investment from Hanwha, the South Korean conglomerate with plans for its own megaconstellation.
Hanwha bought an 8.8% stake in OneWeb through its defense division Hanwha Systems, which acquired British antenna startup Phasor Solutions last year as part of its growing space ambitions.
U.K.-headquartered OneWeb expects regulatory approvals to complete the Hanwha transaction in the first half of 2022, bringing its total investment since emerging from bankruptcy protection in November to $2.7 billion.
The startup has said it only needed $2.4 billion to fund its initial constellation of 648 satellites in low Earth orbit.
It reached that in June, after Indian telecom company Bharti Global doubled its investment to $1 billion to secure what would have been a 38.6% stake before Hanwha’s announcement.
The U.K. government, French satellite operator Eutelsat and Japanese internet giant Softbank were each in line for just under 20% after making their own investments.
U.S.-based Hughes Network Systems, which is supplying parts for OneWeb’s ground segment, also had a small stake.
OneWeb was unable to comment before this article was published.
“Hanwha brings advanced defence and antenna technology development to the OneWeb line-up,” OneWeb CEO Neil Masterson said in a statement.
“We are all delighted that they have chosen to join us on this journey of innovation, shaping a global service to connect the most remote locations and to provide a critical digital pathway from space to our interconnected world.”
The investment would give the South Korean group a seat on OneWeb’s board of directors.
Hanwha Systems plans to build and deploy a constellation of 2,000 satellites in LEO by 2030.
Hanwha Group has said it will invest 500 billion South Korean won ($440 million) in the project by 2023.
The LEO constellation aims to provide connectivity to urban cargo-delivery drones and passenger airplanes.
OneWeb is working toward commercially launching its constellation next year to serve enterprise, government, maritime and aviation customers.
Its latest launch on a Soyuz 2.1b rocket July 1 expanded the constellation to 254 satellites.
Another Soyuz rocket plans to launch a batch of 34 satellites for OneWeb Aug. 20 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.