The world’s leading space-dedicated venture firm, Seraphim Capital, announced on Monday 4th March that serial space entrepreneur Candace Johnson will join as Partner. Ms Johnson has a distinguished career as co-founder of such space ventures as SES ASTRA, SES Global, Loral-Teleport Europe and Europe Online.
Candace joins a strong line-up of other partners at Seraphim who have successfully founded and scaled-up giant international space-related businesses, including Michael Jones, co-founder of Google Earth; and Matt O’Connell, co-founder of earth observation leader GeoEye which sold to Digital Global for $1.3bn.
An experienced venture capitalist and investor, Ms Johnson has been a member of the Strategic Committee of Iris Capital for the past decade and until recently has served as President of the European Business Angel Network. She is also the founding president of the VATM, the Association of Private Telecom Operators; and is co-founder of the Global Telecom Women's Network (GTWN), of the Middle East and North Africa Business Angel Network (MBAN) and of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN).
In her role as Chair of the Seraphim Space Global Advisory Board, Ms Johnson will preside over the committee, which includes corporate backers from industry such as Airbus, Telespazio and SES, along with representatives from ESA and the Satellite Applications Catapult. It is expected that a broad range of additional space industry companies will also join once Seraphim concludes its new Global Space Fund. Seraphim also operates a Space Camp Accelerator backed by Inmarsat, Rolls Royce, Cyient and DSTL, along with ESA and the UK Space Agency. Alongside Space Tech Angels, Seraphim has built a portfolio of over 30 spacetech and dronetech startups including Spire Global, Iceye and LeoLabs.
“I am delighted to be joining peers from around the world to fuel not only “New Space” but also a “New Era in Space”, commented Ms Johnson on her appointment. “The world has never needed so much connectivity, so much interconnectivity and so much interactivity. Space ventures play a critical role in providing the necessary infrastructures, services, and applications. This “New Era in Space” is bringing together governments, corporations, and entrepreneurs to realise visions of creating a better life on earth through the utilisation and exploration of space and space-enabled data.”
“We are proud to have a global icon like Candace Johnson joining the team. She is one of the most experienced and globally active “New Space” entrepreneurs and investors in the world,” said Mark Boggett, CEO of Seraphim. “We can think of no one better to give us the thought leadership necessary to support existing activities alongside the raising and deployment of the new Seraphim Space Global Fund.”
