WASHINGTON — HawkEye 360 announced April 10 it has filed for an initial public offering, becoming the latest defense-oriented space company to test the public markets.
The Herndon, Va.-based company submitted a registration statement on Form S-1 to the Securities and Exchange Commission, taking the first formal step toward a public listing. It plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “HAWK,” though it has not yet disclosed the number of shares to be offered or a price range.
The filing follows a small wave of companies with significant exposure to government demand, particularly in national security, that have gone public over the past year, including Voyager Technologies, Firefly Aerospace and York Space Systems.
Founded in 2015, HawkEye 360 operates a constellation of small satellites designed to detect, characterize and geolocate radio-frequency signals from orbit. Its spacecraft fly in coordinated clusters, allowing them to triangulate the source of emissions such as radar signals and communications links on the ground.
The company sells that data primarily to government customers, including the U.S. military and intelligence agencies as well as allied nations. The information can be used to track ships operating without active transponders, monitor use of the radio spectrum and identify electronic systems.
HawkEye 360 to date has raised more than $500 million in venture funding.
Chris DeMay, a co-founder of HawkEye 360 who left the company in 2020, said going public had long been part of the company’s strategic roadmap.
“The vision from the start was to commercialize RF intelligence, which historically has been the domain of governments,” DeMay said. “To do that, you have to think about the long term, and one of the options is always to IPO.”
DeMay said the company’s close alignment with government customers and market conditions make the IPO timing more favorable. “I’ve been cheering from the sidelines and excited for this milestone,” he said.