SES expands Elveo investment for multi-orbit D2D

SES said on August 17 that it had expanded its strategic investment in Elveo Mobile and widened the companies’ direct-to-device collaboration. The companies plan to combine Elveo’s low-Earth-orbit network with SES’s medium- and geostationary-orbit satellites and ground infrastructure. SES did not disclose the investment amount, its resulting stake or a service launch date.

Direct-to-device, or D2D, connects phones or other devices to satellites without a separate user terminal. SES said its mobile-telecom, enterprise and government customers would gain access to Elveo’s low-Earth-orbit network, while Elveo would receive support with spectrum initiatives, sales, engineering, operations and regulation. Those are forward-looking plans in a company release, not a report of an operating integrated service.

The agreement extends a 2025 investment

The relationship began publicly in March 2025, when SES said it would provide Series B funding for Lynk Global’s D2D constellation. That agreement paired the investment with a planned medium-Earth-orbit relay service, gateway access through SES’s ground network and geostationary-orbit support for telemetry, tracking, command and monitoring. SES also became a channel partner for government, mobile-network and automotive customers. The 2025 release did not state the Series B amount.

Lynk and Omnispace then announced plans to merge in October 2025. They said SES, already an investor in both companies, would become a major strategic shareholder in the combined business. Light Reading reported in March 2026 that SES was expected to hold a large but non-majority position. The August announcement calls the latest investment an expansion but gives no updated percentage or control terms.

The corporate counterparty changed when Lynk and Omnispace completed their merger on August 14 and introduced Elveo Mobile three days later. Elveo says the combined business brings together Lynk’s direct-to-phone platform and mobile-operator relationships with Omnispace’s mobile-satellite spectrum. Its merger release identifies SES among the company’s investors, but it does not provide an ownership table.

The design assigns different jobs to three orbital layers

The planned traffic path starts with a phone or other device connecting to an Elveo satellite in low Earth orbit. The March 2025 agreement described a relay from that low-orbit network through SES satellites in medium Earth orbit to terrestrial gateways. SES’s ground network would provide gateway access, while its geostationary satellites would support telemetry, tracking, command and monitoring. The design is intended to reduce the number of dedicated ground sites Elveo would need.

SES added more detail in a January 2026 company explainer. It said inter-satellite relay equipment planned for Lynk spacecraft would pass traffic from low Earth orbit to SES’s medium-orbit network and then to an SES ground station. At that point the partners were building prototypes, planning trials, working with manufacturers and seeking investors. The August release does not say that relay hardware has been deployed, tested in orbit or placed into commercial operation.

Elveo also adds a spectrum layer to the orbital design. The October 2025 merger announcement said Lynk’s platform could use mobile operators’ terrestrial frequencies, while Omnispace contributed 60 megahertz of coordinated S-band mobile-satellite spectrum aligned with 3GPP non-terrestrial-network specifications. That is the basis for describing the system as both multi-spectrum and multi-orbit. It does not mean a handset would connect directly to all three orbital layers: the disclosed design places the direct device link in low Earth orbit and uses the higher layers for relay, gateways and network support.

The strategic fit is clearer than the financial terms

For SES, the collaboration offers a route into low-orbit D2D without building a separate LEO constellation. For Elveo, it offers access to existing relay capacity, ground infrastructure, customer channels and regulatory experience. SES’s January explainer presented that division of labour as a way to limit the cost and time of entering D2D, while its August release says the arrangement should extend the services available to SES customers. Both benefits remain dependent on integration and commercial deployment.

The financial expansion is much less defined. SES and Elveo did not disclose the amount, valuation, security issued, use of proceeds or conditions attached to the new investment. The release also does not say whether the expansion represents cash already transferred, a future funding commitment or another form of consideration. Without those terms, the announcement establishes SES’s continuing strategic role but does not show how much capital Elveo gained or how much ownership SES added.

Elveo says it has agreements with more than 50 mobile network operators and distribution partners operating in more than 60 countries. The merger release does not list the operators, distinguish contracts from tests or identify markets with an active Elveo service. SES likewise did not name a first customer or country for the integrated offer, and the new announcement gives no constellation size, throughput, supported-device list or rollout timetable. Partnership reach therefore cannot yet be read as global service availability.

SES’s own forward-looking notice identifies satellite deployment, launch and in-orbit performance, D2D development and commercialisation, regulatory approvals and the benefits of strategic investments as risks. The next evidence of progress would be disclosed relay tests, funded production and launch milestones, country authorisations, named operator deployments and a dated integrated-service launch. Until then, the August 17 announcement broadens the planned partnership and confirms another investment, while leaving its price and operational schedule unknown.