Transcelestial, the Singapore-based company building the future of Superfast Global Internet Distribution, on Friday, (Feb. 19) announced it has closed a strategic investment of US$2 million from Kickstart Ventures.
The company, recognized for its Most Disruptive Technology, is expected to boost internet penetration in the country and provide telcos and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with an affordable option for 5G deployment.
The Transcelestial investment was the first publicly announced infusion by Kickstart Ventures from its USD 180 million ACTIVE Fund backed by Ayala Corporation, with several subsidiaries participating - AC Energy, AC Industrials, AC Ventures, BPI, and Kickstart’s parent company, Globe Telecom.
The fund seeks to invest in Series A to D startups globally and has four investment themes focused on the future of transactions and transfers, work and human capital, resource allocation and availability, and property, homes, and community life.
“The team at Kickstart have been fully aligned with our goals of solving the last mile and global bottlenecks in internet distribution," remarked Rohit Jha, CEO of Transcelestial.
"We could not have asked for a better partner to help us not only work with Globe but also advise us on bringing our current and future products to solve some of the challenges in the archipelago nation,” he added.
Transcelestial will play a vital role "as more Filipinos become reliant on internet access for their livelihood and social connections", says Minette Navarrete, President of Kickstart Ventures.
Transcelestial aims to work with Philippine telcos to provide a solution to the challenge of putting up cell sites.
This is done through their proprietary device, CENTAURI, which is the size of a shoe-box, weighing less than 3kg, and is capable of delivering true fibre-like speeds to customers at fraction of the cost of traditional fibre.
CENTAURI, is a mass-produced network device which leverages their proprietary Wireless Laser Communication Technology to create a wireless distribution network between buildings, traditional cell towers, street-level poles and other physical infrastructure.
It unlocks fiber-equivalent high bandwidth between 4G/5G cell towers and the telecom core network which connects back to their data centers.
Through CENTAURI there are no delays caused by right of way issues and the built in automatic alignment technology makes the deployment happen within minutes.
There are no spectrum charges and no extra digging costs for laying fiber cables. As a result, telcos can get to 5G revenues faster by rolling out a transmission network with a reduced total cost and time of ownership as compared to fiber.
Transcelestial is building a space laser network to deliver a step-change in internet connectivity globally.
This will be the fastest way to bring the rest of the world up on the bandwidth and connectivity curve.
Right now, we are using the same technology on the ground as a "wireless fibre optics" - with a much lower TCO than fibre for telcos and enterprises.
Transcelestial has won numerous industry and global awards such as SPIFFY San Andreas Award for Most Disruptive Technology by Telecom Council, Forbes 30 Under 30 to CTO Dr. Mohammad Danesh, Edge 35 Under 35 to our CEO Rohit Jha and The Most Ambitious Start-Up in Photonics Award by The Optical Society (OSA).
Founded in 2016, the Transcelestial team is located in Singapore and is backed by major investors such as Wavemaker Partners, EDBI, Airbus Ventures, Cap Vista, SEEDS Capital (Enterprise SG), Entrepreneur First, Partech Ventures, 500 Startups, AirTree Ventures, Tekton Ventures, SGInnovate, SparkLabs Global Ventures, Michael Seibel (CEO of Y-Combinator, Founder of Twitch.tv), Charles Songhurst (Microsoft’s former Head of Corporate Strategy).