Dutch space startup Hiber announces new leadership team, plans to launch dozens of satellites in 2019

Based out of Amsterdam, the Dutch IoT space startup Hiber had a successful 2018, as the company triumphantly launched 2 nano-satellites and also got named as ‘Amazon Web Services‘ commercial Startup Launch 2018.

Hiber: New leadership team

Now the startup is all set to focus on scaling up and further revolutionising the IoT landscape under the new leadership team. Ernst Peter Hovinga, the CEO of Hiber has handed over day-to-day management to Laurens Groenendijk (MD commercial), Maarten Engelen (MD technology) and Erik Wienk (MD operations, finance and legal) as per January 1st, 2019. So, there will be no new CEO in the company.

The three other founders have a proven track record working together at startup like Treatwell, that they exited to Japanese Recruit Holdings for €34 million. They were also involved, respectively, as founder at Just-Eat.com and Siteworkers, further also CFO at Booking.com.

Dozens of satellites in 12 to 18 months

Notably, the company is planning to launch Hiberband, the world’s first truly global satellite solution, opening the doors to the 90% of the world currently unable to use connected tech.

Furthermore, the company expects to launch dozens of satellites to meet the enormous demand for connected tech around the world in the next 12 to 18 months.

Hovinga will continue to be involved in the company as a shareholder and Advisor to the Advisory Board. He said, “Launching Hiber successfully and getting the organisation ready to scale up was always my ambition. Now that we have reached those milestones, it makes sense to restructure leadership at Hiber.”

Hiber: All you need to know

Founded and led by a dream team of satellite experts and tech entrepreneurs, these ‘Hibernauts’ are literally working on a moonshot goal: to launch and own a nano-satellite constellation in space. Each nano-satellite will roughly be the size of a large shoebox.

To date, around €15 million in funding has been invested in the company. Hiber’s nano-satellites fly over the earth’s poles 16 times a day and the equator twice a day, providing the entire planet with the ability to stream data to and from connected technologies. Using a process that is up to 20 times cheaper than existing global solutions, it works by transferring data from modems and antennas owned by customers directly to the nano-satellites. Data is then sent back to earth via the two existing satellite stations in Spitsbergen in Norway and Delft in the Netherlands.

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