CIT Gap Funds invests in NOVI

The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) announced that CIT GAP Funds is investing in Arlington, Va.-based NOVI, a company that develops hardware and data analytics platforms for the emerging new space industry, a press release states.

We are pleased to announce @CITGAPFunds investment in NOVI – “This team is well positioned to disrupt the rapidly growing #spaceindustry, and CIT is proud to be part of innovations that will have a large impact on the future of space activity.” Marco Rubin https://t.co/arVk2TbPm6 pic.twitter.com/bRZD7DkHfx

— Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (CIT) (@VirginiaIPC) February 21, 2019

“NOVI was founded by Caltech and MIT graduates with a proven track record of success and 35 years of aerospace experience, and they are already backed by government funding and strategic investments from a large defense contractor,” Marco Rubin, senior investment director and manager of the GAP Tech and Commonwealth Energy Funds, said in a statement. “This team is well positioned to disrupt the rapidly growing space industry, and CIT is proud to be part of innovations that will have a large impact on the future of space activity.”

The amount of funding was undisclosed but NOVI said it will use the investment to scale business and sales operations, and expand the development of data analytics capabilities with increased engineering power. The tech startup was founded in 2017, and the company said it focuses on creating a platform for the space industry working to launch low earth orbit (LEO) constellations for earth imaging and remote sensing, IoT, weather forecasting, high bandwidth connectivity and other cases. NOVI is working to offer integrated solutions to generate space data in a more quick and cost efficient way.

“We are entering a crowded space that has several existing manufacturers of small satellite components and providers of data analytics services, but with the support of CIT GAP Funds we will be able to illustrate the benefits of integrated architectures to the industry,” Dr. Amit Mehra, a partner at NOVI, said in the press release. “There is also a lot of great talent here that will allow us to bring the excitement and economic benefits of the new space industry to Virginia. We are grateful for CIT’s support and for access to their network of resources.”