The Legault government is putting more than $6.6M back into NorthStar Ciel & Terre, bringing the sums injected by Quebec into this Montreal space company since 2018 to more than $31.6M.
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In a press release published Wednesday, Stewart Bain, co-founder and CEO of NorthStar, underlines the “unwavering support” of the Quebec government and other investors in the company.
In total, NorthStar is raising $20 million in this new round of financing. The other investors are businessman Charles Sirois, co-founder of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), the Rogers family of Toronto and the government of Luxembourg.
Charles Sirois in 2017
Archive photo, Jean-François Desgagnés
Public funds in abundance
Quebec had already invested $13M in NorthStar in 2018 and $12M in 2021. For its part, Ottawa had invested $13M in the company in 2018.
With the newly raised funds, the company intends to launch four satellites, which will have the mission of monitoring the approximately 11,000 satellites and 128 million orbital debris present in space.
NorthStar suffered a setback earlier this year when Virgin Orbit, a company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, went bankrupt. The Quebec company was counting on Virgin to launch its first satellites.
NorthStar is now banking on the American company Rocket Lab to put its satellites into orbit, which will be built and operated by another American firm, Spire Global.
NorthStar must establish a data processing center in Montreal that will process and provide precise information for the location of satellites and orbital debris.
The company employs 70 people, including 50 in Canada.