We’re here today with me and Meir Moalem Managing Director and CEO of Sky and Space Global. Meir thanks for your time. Are you able to share some of the background of the company?
Audio Transcription
Meir Moalem: [00:00:19] Yes of course Sky and Space Global is an idea that was developed by myself and two of my partners. How to take advantage of the experience and know how we had about the space industry. How to approach huge market of almost three billion people who are unserved today and how to take advantage of the developing technology in space and the miniaturisation of space. What we call the new space technology or in our case nano-satellites. So basically what we’re doing is we’re deploying a constellation of hundreds of very small very low cost satellites in order to deliver communications services into areas of the world where today there’s almost nothing. So in that way with a very low cost we’re providing a much needed service to a lot of people who actually need it and by that creating a very successful business with a lot of revenues coming in within the next few years.
David Tasker: [00:01:16] And what are some of the milestones the company has been able to achieve?
Meir Moalem: [00:01:19] Well the biggest milestone we’ve done in the recent months was launching our first satellites. We’re the first new space company to deploy nano-satellites in space and provide communications services. Now that was done June, just three and a half or four four months ago give or take. That’s a very big milestone. But we didn’t stop there. Once we launched the satellites for the first time in the world we have demonstrated the capability to communicate between the satellites themselves. And after that again we didn’t stop and we have demonstrated doing actual phone calls with a standard smartphone to our satellites to a very small interconnecting device for the first time ever. Phone calls. Instant messaging. Texting. Voice recordings etc. etc.. And by that what we have done is we have de-risked entirely the technology that we’re developing and we’re at the stage of scaling it up to the constellation of satellites.
David Tasker: [00:02:17] How big is the market in which you operate?
Meir Moalem: [00:02:20] Well I’ve said about three billion people who are unserved at the moment. The space market today is over 350 billion US dollars. And it is expected to grow. By the way the Australian government probably understood that which is one of the reasons they’ve just set up a new space agency for Australia which I think is a very good thing. So the market is very big. There are a lot of players in this market as I have said Sky and Space Global is the first one to actually use nano-satellites to provide communications services. By that we’re disrupting an existing market and creating new markets as well.
David Tasker: [00:02:55] And the new market you talk of the addressables that haven’t been accessed or reached by conventional satellite technology?
Meir Moalem: [00:03:04] Oh yes indeed. As I’ve said a lot of people living in that area you know Southeast Asia, Central Africa and South and Central America as well. So a lot of people living there who today their only option of connecting to the world is with a satellite phone that costs one thousand or fifteen hundred dollars and paying a dollar or two dollars per minute which is something which is impossible for them. So a very big market that we’re addressing. One of the ways that we are addressing that market is through partnerships. For example we have a partnership with a company called The Social ECO who are developing a one dollar smartphone. Just imagine a standard Android 7 smartphone which costs only one dollar to these people living in this area and can provide them connectivity. By the way just recently we have announced that we have fully tested this one dollar smartphone with the Sky and Space Global satellites in space and proving that it actually works. So by the way this is a question that we get a lot. Can these people in these areas pay for satellite services. They can for this kind of Sky and Space Global services.
David Tasker: [00:04:08] And what should investors focus on over the coming months from the company?
Meir Moalem: [00:04:12] Well I think there are several things that we’re doing at the moment. One is completing the testing and demonstrations with the first 3 satellites in space which we call the three diamonds. So what we do is we go to the customers. We demonstrate that the technology actually works and then we move forward into binding contracts so these should appear every now and again between now and let’s say the end of this year. The other thing that we’re working really hard on is building the constellation itself. 200 nano-satellites to be deployed starting end of 2018. That’s a lot of hard work. Now we’re moving very fast in this direction. We’ve already done some design reviews with our contractor. So I expect that within the next few months we will keep updating the market about what we’re doing and the way forward for the company.
David Tasker: [00:05:03] As a founder of the business and now the Managing Director how excited. Are you taking this from an idea to an actual launch.
Meir Moalem: [00:05:10] Oh it’s incredibly exciting. It’s dream coming true not only for myself but for my partners as well. It takes a lot of hard work. But this is what we have dreamed about. This is what we have been working really hard. The company is our own blood, sweat and tears. On a day to day basis now fortunately we have delivered so far on everything we said to our shareholders. And we maintain this way of thinking, this way of conducting our business, never promising something that we’re not completely sure we can deliver. Always be very confident in what we’re saying. Have the extra contingencies built within be very conservative. And at the end of the day you know when you go to sleep or when you wake up in the morning and you think. How am I? Was I good today? Have I done good? Have I helped a bit to change the world for good? Did I hold my integrity etc.. So yes, I’m feeling very, very good and very, very excited towards the next few months.
David Tasker: [00:06:18] Thanks for your time.
Meir Moalem: [00:06:19] Thank you for having me here.
