TAMPA, Fla. - Spanish startup FOSSA Systems has raised about $10.5 million to expand its connectivity constellation, with a little help from a government-backed tech investment vehicle. Because nothing says "sovereign communications" like a check from the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT).

The SETT support comes a year after the fund threw 14 million euros at Spain's Sateliot, which is also eyeing satellite connectivity with security and defense applications. Clearly, Spain is determined to avoid being left out of the space-Internet gold rush.

Private investment firm Kibo Ventures led FOSSA's funding round, the six-year-old venture announced June 24, bringing its total raised to nearly 20 million euros. The money will help FOSSA graduate from the tiny picosatellites it once used to connect low-power monitoring devices to larger cubesats in low Earth orbit. Because bigger satellites mean better sovereign communications and space-based intelligence, obviously.

The company, which joined a NATO innovation accelerator in December to advance its dual-use commercial and government technologies, recently opened an office in Tokyo - its first expansion outside Europe. Because why limit your sovereign ambitions to one continent?

“In just a few years, we have gone from being a startup to an internationally present company with 25 satellites launched and technology that responds to real needs of industrial, institutional, and governmental clients,” said Julián Fernández, FOSSA’s CEO and cofounder. “Our goal is to establish FOSSA as a European benchmark in sovereign space infrastructure.”

FOSSA said its next satellite is scheduled for deployment in the coming weeks, with a grand plan to eventually field a network of 140 spacecraft to connect remote Internet of Things (IoT) devices globally. Because what's more sovereign than controlling the IoT?

The funding round follows a wave of investments in European ventures this year that are all about developing sovereign space capabilities. Austrian propulsion startup Gate Space, for instance, secured 6.3 million euros earlier this month from a European Commission-backed accelerator. Because space is the new national pride.

A fund run by Japan’s SPARX Asset Management also joined FOSSA’s latest round, alongside Portuguese investor Indico Capital and a subsidiary of Swiss cybersecurity firm WISeKey. Because even sovereign satellite networks need friends in high places.