O3B Satellite Networks Completes $1.2 Billion Financing From SES, Google

O3b Networks Limited, the developer of a satellite network for phone and Internet operators in emerging markets, said it completed its $1.2 billion funding from banks and investors including SES SA and Google Inc.

O3b, which stands for the “Other 3 billion” or about half of the global population that doesn’t have access to broadband Internet, plans “to provide the speed of fiber optics with the reach of satellite, serving billions of end users around the world,” according to an e-mailed statement.

Beside SES, the world’s largest publicly traded satellite operator, and Google, investors in O3b include John Malone’s Liberty Global Inc., Allen & Co., North Bridge Venture Partners and HSBC Principal Investments. The group of equity investors has provided $410 million, including $230 in new equity investment.

The new investment “has allowed us to secure our funding and to achieve our goal of reaching the billions who have so far been poorly served or completely cut off from the Internet,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Rigolle said in the release.

Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales SA and Finmeccanica SpA, is building the first constellation of eight medium-earth orbit Ka-band satellites for O3b, the statement said. The launch by Arianespace, the world’s biggest commercial satellite launcher, is set for the first half of 2013 from French Guiana.

To contact the reporters on this story: Chiara Remondini in Milan at cremondini@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vidya Root at vroot@bloomberg.net