Esper Satellites, which is building hyperspectral imaging sats to detect mineral deposits on Earth, closed a $5M AUD ($3.1M) seed round to expand its operations on the ground and in orbit.
Two Australia-based firms—Hejaz Financial Services, which provides funding to Islamic founders, and VC fund Paspalis Capital—led the round, which the startup announced yesterday.
Territorial expansion: The funds will help Esper meet the upcoming launch date of its flagship four-sat constellation, dubbed “Four Leaf Clover,” which could see its first two sats launch in February 2026. In the near term, the startup is planning to launch its next prototype satellite, Over the Rainbow-2, as early as this June.
Esper announced the opening of a new office in Darwin to put its growing business development team closer to Aussie mining interests, which have provided a large chunk of its revenue to date.
The company has also begun hiring geologists to test ground samples and verify the accuracy of the imaging data it will soon collect on orbit, according to CEO Shoaib Iqbal.
Money matters: Despite losing its first satellite—Over the Rainbow-1—shortly after launching last March, the company has been able to secure $31M in contracts.
Esper has used near-infrared data from three partner satellites in orbit—a mission called OTR-X—to fulfill those contracts so far, but getting its own imagers into space will be a game changer.
“The economics completely change once it’s our own hardware that enters the market. So even our current existing customer base will be able to expand, and capture a lot more imagery,” Iqbal told Payload.
The Four Leaf Clover sats will increase the quality of the images being taken, upgrading OTR-X’s near-infrared data to short-wave infrared images—at a price point below $2 per km.
And the mining industry has been quick to show interest in getting their hands on hyperspectral data gathered in space. Esper’s data replaces labor-intensive exploration and feasibility studies with an export button, ultimately surfacing rare earths and other vital minerals in a more efficient and environmentally sound way.
“They’re probably one of the most knowledgeable customer bases that we have met.” Iqbal said. “They already know the value. And we’re basically coming in and saying ‘hey, we have the data sets that you have always yearned for.’”
