For decades, the Global Positioning System (GPS) has had a virtual monopoly on positioning, navigation and timekeeping because it is inexpensive and already integrated into billions of devices around the world. But Xona space systems believes a more accurate system will be necessary to scale autonomous vehicles (AVs), advanced robotics and other technologies for the 21st century.
The startup plans to launch a satellite constellation in low Earth orbit that will serve as a commercial GPS alternative. The network, called Pulsar, could potentially cost less to operate while providing more accurate geolocation data.
Xona was founded in 2019 by seven Stanford Graduate School graduates; Most met during graduate school. CTO Tyler Reid earned his doctorate there and worked in the university’s GPS research lab before joining Ford’s autonomous vehicle group in 2017. He worked on “localization requirements,” or the level of navigation performance that an autonomous vehicle or driver assistance feature requires to operate safely, and attempted to develop or procure that technology.
Many vehicles that integrate autonomous features today use a combination of technologies such as cameras, lidar sensors and radar sensors to navigate. Brian Manning, CEO of Fortunately, GPS tends to work very well in these locations because it is not affected by buildings or other conditions.
“The problem, however, is that GPS has nowhere near the accuracy, availability or robustness to serve as a complementary sensor,” Manning said.
“That’s when we really realized how big the gap is between your current GPS and the needs of at least the automotive market and where they are moving very quickly,” he continued. “What if we could build a new GPS with more of a SpaceX mentality instead of a government contractor mentality?”
Xona’s approach is certainly more similar to SpaceX than Boeing. The 31 satellites that provide GPS are all exquisite, extremely expensive, and synchronized to nanosecond precision using giant onboard atomic clocks. In contrast, the Pulsar service is based on an accuracy of several centimeters rather than meters.
Xona launched its first demonstration satellite in 2022 to demonstrate patented core IP, and this satellite has now reached the end of its life. The first production-class satellite will launch in June 2025 and will be built by Belgian satellite manufacturer Aerospacelab. Xona ultimately aims to launch a constellation of 300 satellites. Different customer groups could benefit from the service even before the full constellation is operational, said Manning.
The company designed its signal to be backwards compatible with many existing GPS chipsets, but some are “forwards compatible,” Manning said. But generally, chipsets only require a firmware update to access the encrypted Pulsar signal.
While it may be difficult to compete with a free service like GPS, Xona believes there will be a huge market for advanced location, navigation and timekeeping services due to the rise of AVs and other technologies. Investors are behind this goal: On Tuesday, Xona announced the closing of an oversubscribed $19 million Series A round led by Future Ventures and Seraphim Space and joined by new investors NGP Capital, Industrious Ventures , Murata Electronics, Space Capital and Aloniq.
Rob Desborough, a GP at Seraphim Space, described our reliance on GPS as “absolute” in a statement. “Failures could cause incalculable damage to the global economy, while improvements open up entirely new industries,” he said. “Waiting for GPS to fail or for hostile powers to spoof it is not an option for our security or commercial industries.”
This new round of funding will be used to launch the first production-class satellite into orbit, expand the ground segment supporting Pulsar, and expand the 25-person team.