Tony Elumelu Invests In Planet Labs, US Space Tech Startup.

Heirs Holdings, the pan-African proprietary investment company founded by Mr Tony Elumelu, its Chairman, on Tuesday announced it has invested an unspecified amount in Planet Labs, a US start-up company’s innovative satellite manufacturing technology.

A statement by the Lagos-based company said Heirs Holdings is the only African investor in the project based in San Francisco, California, USA.

Planet Labs has already achieved some significant milestones. Last year, the company launched four satellites on three rockets. Now, it has a fleet of 28 satellites planned to head into space shortly.“Planet Labs aims to transform the way imaging of the Earth is carried out through the introduction of ultra-small satellites called ‘doves.’“These doves circle the planet in low orbit and are significantly cheaper to produce and deploy than existing technology.“Moreover, as they orbit closer to the Earth, they are able to take higher-resolution images than traditional satellites,” the statement explained.

Elumelu, in a comment, said: “As the only African investor in Planet Labs’ project, we are incredibly proud to have supported such an innovative and dynamic company which has already achieved significant success.“

As part of our business philosophy of Africapitalism, we are committed to supporting entrepreneurs and start-ups to enable them to bring scale to their projects and we look forward to following Planet Labs’ achievements over the coming years.”

Mr Robbie Schingler, Planet Labs’ co-founder, said, “We are very excited to welcome Heirs Holdings to our team of investors and thank them for their support.“The funding that they and other partners provide is vital for our development as a company and we are particularly pleased to be working with an African company, as our technology has the potential to support Africa’s development by monitoring and mapping the continent’s natural resources and agriculture.”