Capital Investment Expectations in Maturing SmallSat Markets

As leader of the firm’s Transportation and Space Group in Washington, D.C., Dara’s practice involves representation of satellite operators, aerospace manufacturers, launch services providers, communications companies, banks, private equity firms and hedge funds in debt and equity offerings, project, structured and vendor financings, mergers & acquisitions, financial restructurings and in negotiating commercial contracts. He also advises on regulatory, sanctions, anti-corruption, national security and export control matters.

Primary Focus & Experience

Mr. Panahy’s practice focuses on representing clients involved in the aerospace and communications industries. His experience includes representing satellite operators, aerospace manufacturers, launch services providers, communications companies, banks, private equity firms and hedge funds in numerous financings involving public offerings, high yield debt, investment grade bonds, project and vendor financings, mergers & acquisitions, financial restructuring and reorganizations and in negotiating project contracts. He also counsels clients on domestic and international regulatory and trade matters, including licensing of communications systems, economic sanctions, regulation of foreign direct investment, anti-bribery and corrupt practices, national security and export control laws and regulations and risk management.

Mike Collett is Founder and Managing Partner of Promus Ventures in Chicago. Mike previously was Founder and Managing Partner of Masters Capital Nanotechnology Fund and also on the Technology Equity team with Masters Capital, a hedge fund. Mike was Vice President at Merrill Lynch in the M&A Group as well as an Associate in M&A Division with Duff & Phelps. Mike has invested in over 60 software/hardware startups and is currently on the board of Spire, Layer, Kurbo Health, Gauss Surgical, Dispatch, Enview, FirstLine, and Daylight Solutions. Mike received his BS in Math and a BA in English from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. Mike and his wife Paige have four children and live in Chicago.

Nick has over 20 years experience acting in senior advisory and lending roles across the spectrum of communications, technology and satellite sectors. A debt banker by background, he previously held senior roles at the Royal Bank of Scotland, PricewaterhouseCoopers and HSBC.

Nick and his Portland team specialize in advising early-stage businesses to structure and raise debt funding to help finance their communications infrastructure needs. His recent satellite clients include Mangata Networks,
Omansat, Telesat, OneWeb, Kacific, O3b Networks, Effective Space Solutions, Skybox Imaging, and Azercosmos. Nick is a member of the advisory board of both the UK Satellite Finance Network and the UK chapter of SSPI. He has a BA (Hons) in International Economics and a Maitrise in International Commerce and is a fluent French speaker. Nick is based in the UK.”

Sunil Nagaraj is the Founder and Managing Partner of Ubiquity Ventures, a seed-stage institutional venture capital firm with close to $100 million under management and a focus on “software beyond the screen”® startups. This includes B2B technology companies that utilize smart hardware or machine learning to solve business problems outside the reach of computers and smartphones. By transforming real-world physical problems into the domain of software, Ubiquity startups tap into large greenfield markets and offer more effective solutions.

Sunil currently serves on the boards of Esper, Halter, Kinetic, Parallel Domain, PAXAFE, Safehub, Sensable, ThruWave and other undisclosed investments.

Prior to founding Ubiquity Ventures, Sunil spent six years as a venture capitalist with Bessemer Venture Partners where his work included leading the seed and Series A rounds of Auth0 (acquired by Okta) and Zapier as well as investments in Defense.Net (acquired by F5 Networks), Rainforest QA, Rocket Lab, Spire, Tile, and Twitch (acquired by Amazon). Prior to being an investor, Sunil was founder/CEO of Triangulate, a VC-backed online dating startup using machine learning and behavioral data to improve matching accuracy. He has also worked at Bain & Company, Cisco, and Microsoft.

Sunil holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves as President of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (the largest general astronomy education society in the world with past Presidents including Edwin Hubble and Frank Drake). He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Harvard Business School California Research Center and as an Alumni Advisor to the Harvard MS/MBA program. He spends his free time playing piano, sailing, and nerding out on new technologies.

Tess Oxenstierna, Managing Director at Capstone Partners, has over 30 years of experience in the aerospace and defense industry, government policy arena and financial services sector. Tess holds deep domain knowledge and transaction advisory skills, especially in the high growth markets of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR), Air / Land / Sea / Space Systems, Electronic Warfare, Unmanned Autonomous Systems / Robotics. Prior to joining Capstone Partners, Tess founded the Aerospace and Defense practice at a middle market boutique investment bank, focusing on private and public corporate clients with diverse products such as command and control software for aerial drones, satellite-based force tracking systems and electronic warfare devices used in Afghanistan and Iraq. She was Global Head of Equities Strategy at Lehman Brothers, responsible for strategy development leveraging competitive intelligence, market analysis, and acquisitions across Americas, Europe, and Asia. Transactions included investments in stock exchanges, a NYSE specialist market-maker, and international broker-dealers. Tess was also Director of Corporate Development and Strategy at Raytheon, with deal team transactions valued at over $3.4 billion in sensor automation/ information synthesis, geospatial mission support, network forensics, interoperable communications for homeland security, and commercial aviation/life cycle support. Prior to these transactional roles, Tess worked in the Reagan White House, U.S. Departments of State and Energy, and NATO Headquarters, complementing her combat operational experience as a Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

A recognized industry expert, she was honored with deal awards, such as 2021 Top Women Dealmaker & Leader Award Winner by Global M&A Network, 2021 M&A’s Most Influential Women, 2020 USA Top Woman Dealmaker, 2019 M&A Atlas Awards for Industrials, and 2018 M&A Advisor, Corporate / Strategic Deal of the Year. She has also spoken at Thompson Reuters A&D Summit, Int’l AUVSI Conferences, New York Capital Roundtable and on a tv interview on ABC’s Government Matters. She serves on the Board of the U.S. Navy League – CT Council. In addition, she holds a Ph.D. in War Studies from King’s College London; M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard; and B.A. in International Relations from UCLA. In addition to her degrees, Tess studied Corporate Finance at Harvard Business School and British Political Thought, Perspectives on European Union at Cambridge University.