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Heirs Holdings_Planet Labs

Heirs Holdings, the pan-African investment company, has announced its investment in Planet Labs, a United States startup involved in satellite manufacturing technology. Planet Labs, based in San Francisco, California, is on the verge of transforming the way imaging of the Earth is carried out through a technology that uses ultra-small satellites known as “doves”. These “doves”, according to a statement from Heirs Holdings, hover above the Earth in low orbit, are significantly cheaper to produce using existing technology, and also take higher-resolution images than traditional satellites. Tony Elumelu, Chairman, Heirs Holdings, notes; “As the only African investor in Planet Labs’ project, we are incredibly proud to have supported such an innovative and dynamic company, which has already achieved significant success. As part of our business philosophy of Africapitalism, we are committed to supporting entrepreneurs and start-ups to enable them to bring scale to their projects and we look forward to following Planet Labs’ achievements over the coming years.” In 2013, Planet Labs launched four satellites on three rockets, and delivered its first fleet of 28 satellites, which should embark on a mission to space soon. Robbie Schingler, co-founder of Planet Labs, said, “We are very excited to welcome Heirs Holdings to our team of investors and thank them for their support. The funding that they and other partners provide is vital for our development as a company and we are particularly pleased to be working with an African company, as our technology has the potential to support Africa’s development by monitoring and mapping the continent’s natural resources and agriculture.”  
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This article was first published on 28th January 2014

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