SWARM: A New Paradigm for Communication Satellites

Meet Swarm’s co-founder and CEO Sara Spangelo as she discusses how Swarm creates the world’s smallest and lowest-cost two-way communication satellites. Swarm’s mission is to connect people and devices anywhere in the world at the lowest cost. Swarm has 81 satellites in space and will have 150 by the end of 2021 – all designed and built in-house. 46 billion IoT (internet of things) devices are expected to be deployed by 2021, many of those in use by critical industries including agriculture, energy, ground transportation, maritime and more. Conversely, there remain billions of people around the world still lacking basic internet access. This problem affects rural areas and developing countries most, which further widens gaps in economic opportunity. Spangelo will discuss the trajectory of her career starting at Universities of Manitoba and Michigan in academia, to JPL/NASA, to Google X, to her (failed) tryouts to be a Canadian astronaut, and how these experiences led to the adventure of starting and leading a space startup. She will conclude by sharing their vision for how the future of connectivity will evolve over the next several years.