Analysis
Hubble Network, the Seattle-area startup that connects standard Bluetooth Low Energy chips directly to satellites, announced a $200 million Series C at a $1.6 billion valuation on Wednesday, led by Smith Point Capital with participation from Seraphim, Carthona Capital, Earthshot Ventures, Y Combinator and RPM Ventures, according to GeekWire's report.
The round brings Hubble's total funding past $300 million, on top of a Series B disclosed earlier this year.
Hubble was founded in 2021 by CEO Alex Haro -- previously CTO at Life360 -- alongside Ben Wild, John Kim and Josh Barnes. Haro's pitch grew out of a gap he identified at Life360: no existing network offered global, battery-efficient, low-cost connectivity for hardware that isn't a phone. Hubble's answer is a low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation, currently six satellites with a plan to reach 60 by 2030, engineered to hear standard Bluetooth LE radio signals directly from space without any special chip or antenna on the device side.
“The round brings Hubble's total funding past $300 million, on top of a Series B disclosed earlier this year.”
Alongside the funding, Hubble opened its satellite coverage to any Bluetooth LE device rather than only its existing enterprise partners. The network's Terrestrial Network already spans more than 100 million gateways across 170 countries and 3 million square miles, and more than 500,000 devices are active on the satellite layer today -- more than 10 times the number a year ago -- through partners including Life360 and Tile, which together reach more than 90 million devices.
Hubble's most direct competitor, Swarm, built a similarly low-cost satellite-IoT modem before SpaceX acquired it in 2021, removing an independent player from the market Hubble now has largely to itself among venture-backed startups; EchoStar Mobile and Viasat compete from the incumbent satellite-operator side with different technical approaches and cost structures.
The bet is that direct-to-satellite Bluetooth removes the biggest friction point in device tracking -- needing a cellular or dedicated satellite chip -- by working with hardware that's already in billions of existing devices. That also means Hubble depends on device makers choosing not to add their own proprietary connectivity, and on launching enough satellites to guarantee reliable global coverage rather than the intermittent connectivity that has limited earlier satellite-IoT services.
For investors tracking the space-tech and IoT crossover, Hubble's valuation jump reflects how much capital is chasing companies that turn existing consumer hardware into satellite-connected assets without requiring a hardware refresh cycle -- a lower-friction go-to-market than most satellite startups can claim.