OneWeb Reaches $2.4B Investment Goal

OneWeb received an additional $500 million investment from co-owner Bharti Global, and reached its $2.4 billion fundraising goal, said the company Tuesday. The new investment gives Bharti a 38.6% stake, with Eutelsat, SoftBank and the U.K. government each owning 19.3%. CEO Neil Masterson said completing funding "puts OneWeb in a powerful position." It has "significantly lower entry cost" than any low earth orbit satellite company, he said: "We benefit from $3.4bn of pre-Chapter 11 investment by the original shareholders, making new OneWeb a three-times lower cost Constellation." A scheduled July 1 launch will complete 40% of its planned satellite network, said Masterson.