Forbes reported on October 22, 2026, that Xona had raised a $250 million Series D at a $2.45 billion valuation, led by Future Ventures. The same report said six Xona satellites had launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 on a Tuesday shortly before publication, beginning deployment of the company’s planned Pulsar navigation network.
Xona’s reported funding round
Future Ventures contributed $78.5 million to the round, Forbes reported. It also put Xona’s cumulative funding at more than $570 million after a $170 million Series C seven months earlier.
Xona CEO Brian Manning told Forbes that incoming demand and progress in manufacturing helped prompt the fundraising. He described the change from an empty warehouse at the start of the year to a functioning satellite factory.
Six satellites begin the reported Pulsar deployment
The six spacecraft have different planned roles. Forbes reported that four were intended eventually to support customers, with positioning-products maker Topcon named among them; the other two were testing Xona’s in-house satellite design.
Xona plans an initial Pulsar constellation of 258 satellites in low Earth orbit, below the altitude of GPS satellites. The company intends to sell navigation services. Forbes described stronger signals and centimeter-level precision as planned capabilities, with the lower orbit intended to produce the stronger signal.
That makes Pulsar a proposed commercial alternative to GPS, a free, government-developed navigation system. The six reported launches are an early deployment toward Xona’s larger constellation plan, not the full network.
An earlier Pulsar milestone and the beta forecast
Space Capital’s video description says Pulsar-0 broadcast a fully authenticated navigation signal from low Earth orbit in June 2025. The description also claims Pulsar satellites operate up to 20 times closer to Earth than traditional GPS satellites, produce signals 170 times stronger, and can achieve sub-meter accuracy in dense urban areas and indoors. Those are claims made in the description; Forbes separately described centimeter-level precision as a planned capability.
Forbes forecast beta service for early 2027. Its report gave no specific beta date.
