Last month, Spaceflight Industries, a next-generation space company dedicated to democratizing access to space and one of our clients at Communiqué PR, announced it secured $18 million of Series B financing led by technology growth investor Mithril Capital Management, in a round that is expected to raise up to $25 million. This was Mithril’s first investment in a commercial space company and in addition to leading the round, Mithril reinforced its commitment to Spaceflight’s mission by placing its co-founder and managing general partner, Ajay Royan, on the company’s board of directors.

This round of financing, which was joined by previous investors in Spaceflight Industries, including RRE Venture Capital, Vulcan Capital and Razor’s Edge Ventures, will help the company execute on strategic initiatives, including the acquisition of OpenWhere, Inc., a Virginia-based company that will further enhance and execute on the geospatial data platform for satellite imagery promised by BlackSky, a business line under the Spaceflight umbrella. Initially launched in 2015, BlackSky plans to deploy a constellation of 60 imaging satellites to orbit the earth and provide near real-time images of the planet to customers at a price unmatched in the industry.

Communiqué PR understood that this funding and acquisition news was significant not only to Spaceflight Industries, but also to the broader commercial space and geospatial industry, as well as to business and investment press. As such, we believed there would be strong interest in the news and developed a strategy to inform the industry and drive awareness of Spaceflight’s accomplishments toward its goal of democratizing access to space.

Our approach involved developing a targeted press list focused on journalists covering business deals, investments and the commercial space and geospatial industries. We also worked closely with Spaceflight Industries to finalize a press release and with Mithril’s PR manager to capitalize on the firm’s relationships with select media. Finally, we offered the news under embargo to targeted media in order to ensure accuracy and drive coverage to hit around the official distribution date. Speaking of which, we scheduled the news to cross the wire on the first day of the NewSpace conference, an industry event that was being held for the first time in Seattle on June 21, to drive additional buzz about the company with attendees, including press.

We are pleased to say that we have secured 28 articles around the news thus far, with additional articles about Spaceflight Industries and its mission still pending. Here are some highlights of the coverage secured thus far:

• TechCrunch—Spaceflight Industries just raised $25 million, led by Mithril, 6/21/16
• Fortune—Term Sheet — Tuesday, June 21, 6/21/16
• VC News Daily—Spaceflight Industries Lands $18M, 6/21/16
• The Seattle Times—Spaceflight Industries raises $18M to launch satellites, 6/21/16
• GeekWire—Spaceflight raises $18 million and acquires OpenWhere to build satellite data portal, 6/21/16
• Xconomy—Spaceflight Industries Raises $18M, Acquires OpenWhere, 6/21/16
• Puget Sound Business Journal—Spaceflight Industries gets $18M in Series B funding, plans Series C, 6/21/16
• Via Satellite—Spaceflight Industries Closes Financing Round, Acquires OpenWhere, 6/21/16
• PE Hub Network—Spaceflight Industries raises $18 mln, 6/21/16
• Fin SMES—Space Company Spaceflight Industries Secures $18M in Series B Financing, 6/21/16
• Parabolic Arc—Spaceflight Industries Closes $25 Million Financing Round, 6/21/16
• Space Ref—Spaceflight Industries Closes $25 Million Financing Round Led by Mithril, 6/21/16
• Northwest Innovation—Spaceflight Industries Secures $18M, 6/21/16
• Satellite Finance—Spaceflight buys analytics firm OpenWhere to expedite imagery business, 6/21/16
• Potomac Tech Wire Newsletter—Spaceflight Industries Acquires Herndon-Based OpenWhere, 6/21/16 (behind firewall)
• New Space Watch—Spaceflight Industries Closes $25 Million Financing Round Led by Mithril, 6/21/16 (behind firewall)
• SpaceNews—Spaceflight Industries raises $18 million to acquire software company, 6/22/16
• Space Daily—Spaceflight Industries closes $25M financing round led by Mithril, 6/24/16
• GovConWire—Spaceflight Industries Buys OpenWhere in Satellite Imaging Market Push, 6/24/16

In addition to Spaceflight Industries’ funding news, the company’s launch business, Spaceflight Services, announced a successful launch later the same day. During a party hosted by Spaceflight Industries for NewSpace conference attendees, Spaceflight displayed live-stream video of the launch of an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) carrying a payload brokered by Spaceflight comprised of 12 Dove satellites owned by Planet. Once the launch was confirmed a success, we hit send and shared the news with a tailored list of target press and garnered nine articles in key industry publications including SpaceNews, Spaceflight Now, Via Satellite and SatNews, among others.

Communiqué PR congratulates Spaceflight Industries for these milestones and we look forward to supporting and celebrating the company’s continued growth and innovation. To find out more about how Spaceflight is shaking up the space industry, please visit www.spaceflight.com.