European satellite operator Swissto12 has secured new funding.

The microGEO satellite firm announced securing €73 million ($84.8 million) in financial support from ESA member states through the HummingSat ARTES partnership project.

The company said the funding will accelerate its development and industrialization of its HummingSat platform, as well as scaling up its manufacturing capacity and “accelerating new product innovations,” and further develop its phased-array antenna technologies.

The funding was madethrough the Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) HummingSat Partnership Project, within ESA Connectivity and Secure Communications. The funding came from Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Norway, and Canada.

Laurent Jaffart, ESA director of connectivity and secure communications, said: “We are proud to continue our support of SWISSto12, particularly in creating cost-effective solutions for satellite systems that answer to the satcom ecosystem’s ever-increasing demands. ESA is committed to elevating Europe’s future in space through our support of the industry and by accelerating next-generation satellite technologies.”

The latest investment takes the company’s total funding to more than €100 million ($117m).

MicroGeo satellites are satellites in geostationary orbits that are much smaller than traditional machines at such high orbits.

A spin-out from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Swissto12 claims its HummingSat can be up to ten times cheaper than other GEO satellites. The machines measure around 1.5 cubic meters (52.9 cubic feet), loosely half the size of a small car, with 1,000kg (2,204 pounds) of launch mass and able to support 200kg (440.9 pounds) of payload capacity, supplied with 2kW of power with a predicted operational life of 15 years.

Emile de Rijk, CEO and founder of Swissto12 said: “The recent subscriptions of Member States and Cooperating States at the ESA Ministerial Council to the HummingSat Project, and the latest round of funding from European private investors sends a strong message to the global market that Swissto12 is at the heart of satellite communications innovation. With our growing suite of agile, cost-effective, and highly performant SatCom solutions, we provide a credible answer to some of the most pressing challenges facing the space economy, including the critical issue of enabling satellite sovereignty – something, until now, out of reach for most of the world’s nations.”

Comparable microGEO solutions include Boeing’s 702X and ESA’s SGEO missions with Hispasat 36W-1, as well as Astranis' satellite offerings.