A Defense Satellite Communication System satellite.

A Defense Satellite Communication System satellite. U.S. Air Force

Private Equity Firm Acquires Geost, Whose Sensors Protect Satellites

It’s a play to capitalize on massive satellite orders from the Pentagon.

New York-based ATL Partners has acquired Geost, a small Arizona firm that makes sensors that can watch and protect satellites from threatening spacecraft.

Firm officials called it the first in a coming series of investments in a market that’s expected to grow exponentially as the Pentagon puts thousands of small satellites into orbit in coming years.

“They [Geost] really punch above their weight with their technology and their capabilities and their customer set,” said Michael Kramer, a principal with the ATL Partners. “You look at what they do—they're competing with Raytheon, they're competing with General Atomics—and they're a small company. We're really excited to partner with them, but then take them to the next level.”

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Discussions between the two companies began late last year when ATL was introduced to Josh Hartman, a former deputy assistant defense secretary for space and intelligence, who was hired by Geost two years ago as vice president.

Since Hartman arrived, the company has more than tripled its revenue, and plans to continue its growth in coming years.

“The growth that we're experiencing has to do with this larger market play that's going on,” Hartman said in an interview.

ATL is planning to grow Geost through both investments and acquisitions. They’re envisioning new production facilities, hiring more engineers and increasing the company’s internal research and development budgets.

“We want to do a lot of really strategic, targeted, bolt on acquisitions,” Kramer said. “We want to think about expanding our product capabilities into complimentary adjacencies.”

One technology of interest for the private equity firm is payload processing.

Among Geost’s products are small cameras and other types of sensors that can detect approaching satellites, space debris and other objects. The technology could allow the military to take defensive actions, such as repositioning the satellite, if a threat is detected. The company’s sensors for large satellites are about one foot by one foot, but its smaller sensors for lower-flying satellites can fit in your hand. Hartman said about 50 of the company’s sensors could protect a 150-satellite constellation.

“They're a company that has a high degree of differentiation with their technology,” Kramer said. “When they're putting together sensors for space domain awareness, their ability to produce these sensors, at a much lower size, weight and power plus price is very important when you think about where the procurement efforts in [the] Space Force and Air Force are going.”

Hartman said Geost is uniquely positioned because it specializes in the smaller sensors needed for smaller satellites. Its larger competitors have focused on building bigger sensors for bigger satellites. 

“They've never had to build small payloads and they've never had to build small payloads at scale,” he said. “They've got an infrastructure and a design philosophy that's oriented around building refrigerators. Somehow, they need to figure out how to build toasters. We have been building toasters for the last 16 years because that in the classified space, that's what we were asked to do.”

Geost, which provides some of its products to the Pentagon and intelligence community, partners with larger defense primes, including Northrop Grumman and L3Harris Technologies.

The Pentagon and Space Force are at the beginning of an expected satellite shopping spree as they build constellations of new spacecraft to augment larger, higher flying and more expensive satellites. These constellations, many anticipated to have hundreds of satellites each, will need small payloads.

The Pentagon has been increasingly concerned about Russian spacecraft maneuvering close to U.S. satellites. Geost’s technology could give people on the ground a better picture of what’s happening high above the Earth.

“Our products are much more in demand than they were,” Hartman said. “We think that's only going to accelerate.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.