The pan-African proprietary investment company founded by
Tony O. Elumelu, Heirs Holdings, has invested heavily an undisclosed sum in a United States (US)
start-up, Planet Labs’ innovative satellite manufacturing technology, popularly called 'doves'.
DigitalSENSE
Business News gathered that Heirs Holdings is the only African investor in
the project, which is based in San Francisco.
According to DigitalSENSE
Business News findings, Planet Labs aims to transform the way imaging of
the Earth is carried out, through the introduction of ultra-small satellites
called ‘doves.’
These ‘doves’ circle the planet in low orbit and are
significantly cheaper to produce and deploy than existing technology. Besides,
as they orbit closer to the Earth, they are able to take higher-resolution
images than traditional satellites.
Confirming this development to DigitalSENSE Business News, Elumelu,
who is the chairman of Heirs Holdings, noted that as the only African investor
in Planet Labs’ project, his company is incredibly proud to have supported such
an innovative and dynamic company, which has already achieved significant
success.
“As part of our business philosophy of Africapitalism, we
are committed to supporting entrepreneurs and start-ups to enable them to bring
scale to their projects and we look forward to following Planet Labs’ achievements
over the coming years,” he said.
Planet Labs has already achieved some significant
milestones. In 2013 alone, the company launched four satellites on three
rockets, and delivered their first fleet of 28 satellites, which are expected
to head into space shortly.
Co-founder, Planet Labs, Mr. Robbie Schingler said they were very excited to welcome Heirs Holdings to the team of investors and expressed thanks to them for their support.
"The funding that they and other partners provide is vital for our development as a company and we are particularly pleased to be working with an African company, as our technology has the potential to support Africa’s development by monitoring and mapping the continent’s natural resources and agriculture,” Schingler said.
Chuks Egbuna/GEE
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Pix: Tony Elumelu
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