Mynaric booms thanks to satellite links
September 5, 2023
Munich-based Mynaric makes laser communication equipment for airborne and spaceborne communication networks. The growing mega-constellations of satellites increasingly depend on these laser inter-satellite links. And business at Mynaric is booming.
As at April 27th it enjoyed a 348 terminal backlog, up from 256 orders as at Dec 31st. Mynaric’s mission statement is simple: “We create the equivalent of the fiber optic cable for the aerospace industry – without the cable.”
Cleverly, Mynaric has also been billing its clients for pre-payments for their orders and they have been paying. Last year it banked payments of €18.3 million, and in the first 4 months of 2023 it banked €18.8 million of prepayments.
On August 22nd it announced it was under contract to the US Space Development Agency to test its laser kit on small satellites. It is also supplying its laser terminals to Northrop Grumman on 42 satellites and delivering the equipment during this year and next.
Mynaric says it is scaling up its production with the aim of building 2000 units annually.
Mynaric is keeping most of its clients private and does not say whether it has been selected to supply satellite operators such as OneWeb (on its 2nd-generation craft), Rivada Space Networks and Telesat. But it is a reasonable suggestion to expect they’ll be bidding for all of the contracts. Each of the three are expected to include laser-based equipment on their satellites.
On August 25th the company said that – as at the end of December 2022 – it had €51.8 million in cash and had negotiated fresh liquidity of $75 million from its US subsidiary business to fund ongoing commitments in return for an investment in the business.
On the downside Mynaric was fined €150,000 by the Frankfurt Stock Exchange for a violation of its rules connected with an order from China that was subsequently disallowed by German regulators.
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