Direct-to-device satellite connectivity provider Skylo Technologies has raised $37 million.

Those contributing include existing investors Intel Capital and Innovation Endeavours, and new backers BMW i Ventures, Samsung Catalyst, Next47, and Seraphim Space.

The funding will help Skylo to expand operations to better support smartphones, wearables, IoT devices, and mobile network operator customers.

This is Skylo's third funding round, following a Series A in 2017 and Series B in 2020. In total, the company has raised $153m. Previous investors include SoftBank, dcm, Boeing, and Moore Strategic Ventures.

"We're immensely proud to lead this new chapter in direct-to-device satellite connectivity, supported by an incredible consortium of investors. Their commitment helps make Skylo's standards-based service the default choice for the NTN ecosystem," said Parth Trivedi, CEO and co-founder of Skylo. "This round accelerates our carrier partnerships and supports all top device makers adopting our standards-based solution."

Intel Capital's David Johnson, who has joined the Skylo board of directors, said: "As lead investors, we recognize the transformative potential of Skylo's scalable approach for 5G satellite-to-device communications.

"Since our first meeting with Parth and the team, we've been impressed with the extensive industry ecosystem support they've received in delivering a complete end-to-end connectivity service for high volume device categories at low cost."

Skylo has already launched its initial service across the US, Canada, and Europe in partnership with chipmakers Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek, and Sony and device OEMs and mobile carriers such as Deutsche Telekom.

In addition, Skylo has partnered with satellite operators, bringing the service onto fully licensed spectrum and existing satellite assets, meaning terrestrial mobile carriers can use the service without sacrificing their spectrum.

In 2021, Skylo began offering commercial satellite-based NarrowBand IoT services through agreements with Inmarsat and SoftBank. The company signed another deal with Viasat in early 2023 which would see Skylo's technology for 3GPP Release-17 NTN industry-standard waveforms and spectrum added to Ligato's SkyTerra network.