Kleos grows Luxembourg HQ at “mini-Silicon Valley”

Space firm Kleos is moving to a new bespoke office in Luxembourg where it will house its engineering and operation facilities, mission control centre and special rooms to assemble and test space hardware.

Kleos was one of the first companies to make Luxembourg its European headquarters after the launch of the Spaceresources.lu initiative in 2016. It signed a memorandum of understanding with the government in 2017, setting up an office at Technoport with five employees. It has since doubled this number, according to its 2020 annual report.

“Our new facility will support our constellation growth, enhancing our global coverage and providing our customers with access to specific areas of interest and multiple datasets,” said CEO Andy Bowyer in a statement.

The facility will be located at the ParcLuxite in Kockelscheuer, a 65-hectare complex dedicated to innovation and technology companies. “It is considered Luxembourg’s equivalent of a mini-Silicon Valley,” the company said.

“Our new Luxite facility will enable us to be immersed in a tech environment. It will provide Kleos with the right framework to foster innovation and the capacity to support our growing operations,” said COO Heribert Kraemer. “The office will host the mission operations team, global finance, and communications. As we continue to build our constellation and commercialise our data products, we are also increasing our team to support long-term growth.”

Kleos in 2020 launched its first cluster of satellites and currently operates eight satellites in space, in two clusters of four. A third cluster is being prepared for launch. The satellites detect and geolocate radio frequency signals, for example to detect illegal activities such as piracy, drug and people smuggling at sea or illegal fishing.

The company will move into the new offices on 1 November this year. “It’s an exciting period for Kleos as we transition from an R&D company into a commercial provider of geolocation intelligence data,” Bowyer said.

The announcement on Thursday came shortly after Kleos said it had (€7.9m) from new and existing Austrlian and US investors to grow its satellite constellation and scale up its geolocation data-as-a-service offer.

The company said it has more than 170 deals in the pipeline, including agreements with 69 government agencies. Kleos earlier this year opened an office in Denver, Colorado, and also has a location in Leicester, UK.