OneWeb scores $500m injection from India’s Bharti Global ahead of satellite launch
OneWeb has received an investment injection of $500m today from business giant Bharti Global, making the Indian conglomerate the start-up’s largest shareholder.
Just days after the UK space start-up inked a deal with BT, OneWeb, which currently has 218 satellites, is due to launch another 36 on Thursday.
Bharti now has a 39 per cent stake in the UK firm, after putting in a $1bn bid to buy OneWeb to hoist it out of bankruptcy last year.
The cash injection, which is expected to be completed later this year, will help Oneweb bolster its network of low Earth-orbiting satellites to deliver broadband connections internationally.
The space start-up has a number of large shareholders, including the UK government and Japan’s SoftBank.
In total, the company has bagged around $2.4bn of outsourced funding, including the $550m it received in April from Paris-based Eutelsat.