Matt O’Connell former GeoEye CEO is joining the firm as a Partner. Matt is widely recognised as a leading authority on the commercialisation of geospatial data, having led GeoEye, Inc., a global provider of geospatial intelligence solutions as CEO for 12 years. During that time Matt increased the enterprise value from $30m to $1.3bn creating a global leader in high-resolution earth imagery and geospatial analysis which he subsequently sold to Digital Globe. In 2015/16 he also served as CEO of OneWeb, the start-up developing a 650 satellite constellation aiming to provide low-cost internet connectivity to billions of people around the world. He also currently serves as a member of the Board of Spaceflight Industries, Inc.
He says: “Technology convergence is driving disruptive change in every single element of the space tech ecosystem. Set against the falling costs to access space the playing field has been levelled for new startups to enter the market to provide game changing new services. This is a tremendous area for growth and I believe we will see these emerging capabilities enabling us to deliver new levels of situational awareness and deep analytic insights. I look forward to supporting the Seraphim team in their efforts to invest in and help build the best of these companies into global successes.“
Mark Boggett, CEO of Seraphim Capital says: “We‘re delighted to have Matt joining the team. He has unparalleled experience of developing and scaling venture-backed geospatial and satellite communications businesses that collect, analyse and deliver insights to a wide variety of customers. He shares our ambition to back the best-of-breed space start-ups globally that are developing a proprietary capability to collect, process and analyse massive amounts of data for customers, capturing how our planet is changing in real-time.“
