Satellite Executive of the Year: The Nominees for 2016

Nathan Kundtz, CEO and President, Kymeta

While the satellite industry is full of great and established companies, for the industry to survive and prosper going forward, it needs new blood and ideas to shake things up. On the technology side, Kymeta is clearly disrupting the antenna market, a key market given how the satellite industry is targeting mobility markets such as aero, maritime and connected car going forward.

2016 was a banner year for Kymeta and its President and CEO Nathan Kundtz. The company secured a partnership with Panasonic to bring its flat-panel antenna to the maritime market in the second quarter of 2017. Combining Panasonic’s high-throughput satellite network with Kymeta’s lightweight antenna design will enable maritime vessels anywhere in the world to gain access to cost-effective, high-speed connectivity for owners, passengers and crew alike.

In a key technical achievement, at the 2016 Monaco Yacht Show, Kymeta demonstrated 2.9 dB additional gain when combining two Kymeta mTenna Antenna Subsystem Modules (ASMs). The demonstration also confirmed the low-power consumption of the Kymeta mTenna technology, drawing only 12 watts of power per ASM.

In 2016, Kymeta also announced an agreement with Toyota at the 2016 North American International Automotive Show to bring the Kymeta mTenna technology to future cars. Also, in September 2016, Kymeta and TECOM announced a Partner Development Program for the aviation market. Under the terms of the agreement, TECOM will incorporate Kymeta mTenna technology into an aviation-grade terminal to demonstrate connectivity to a Ka-band satellite.

The company is blazing a trail in the antenna market and has also reached a key financial milestone in 2016. Kymeta secured $62 million in new Series D funding in 2016 and has now successfully completed two rounds of funding. The most recent was the company’s biggest to date, and included investors such as Bill Gates, Lux Capital, Kresge Foundation and Osage University Partners.

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