Xona Space Systems Secures $92M for Next Generation Navigation Services
Xona Space Systems raised $92M in a Series B funding round to build its Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) constellation in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which aims to offer an alternative to GPS.
Craft Ventures led the round, which also included participation from Stellar Ventures, Seraphim Ventures, Toyota Ventures, First Spark Ventures, and others. The funding also includes $20 million in non-dilutive funding through a Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) award from SpaceWERX, the innovation arm of the United States Space Force. Xona’s total funding to date is approximately $150 million.
"GPS is one of the most important inventions of the modern world, but it was built for a different era," said Brian Manning, Co-Founder and CEO of Xona. "Our mission at Xona is to rebuild the foundations of navigation and timing to meet today's demands for accuracy, security, and resilience. With this funding, we're accelerating from R&D to delivery at scale."
GPS supports numerous technologies the modern world depends on, such as syncing power grids, guiding agricultural machinery, and timestamping financial transactions. However, GPS signal’s are susceptible to interference by intentional jamming and spoofing, and disruption by space weather. Xona plans to address vulnerabilities in PNT systems with its constellation of 258 satellites, called Pulsar, which will orbit 326 miles above Earth. From this distance, around 40 times closer than current GPS satellites, PNT signals are about 100 times stronger when they reach Earth, making them harder to jam. This month, the company launched its first production-class satellite, Pulsar-0, aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-14 mission.
The California-based startup will use the funding to expand its manufacturing facilities and grow its engineering team to accelerate the deployment of the constellation. “In 2026, we’ll begin launching our first batch of production-operational satellites that will enable service with our earliest customers,” Xona officials stated. “This funding allows us to expedite our progress: Bringing more satellites online, onboarding early customers, and increasing our manufacturing capacity to support our full constellation with hundreds of satellites in orbit over the next few years.”
Xona is targeting automotive, logistics, mining and defense industries, among others, with its satellite-based positioning, navigation and timing services. "Navigation and timing are invisible infrastructure - critical to everything from aviation and shipping to agriculture, finance, and autonomous systems," Manning added. The company's planned low-Earth orbit constellation will augment existing GPS until it becomes a standalone source of information.