Closing Bell - Manifest Space: Maxar Splits In Two, Rebrands as Vantor and Lanteris 10/2/25

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

Maxar splits into two companies: Vantor and Lanteris. Both will remain Advent portfolio companies. Morgan sits down with Vantor CEO Dan Smooth to discuss the company’s rebrand, growth in key software revenue metrics and and how AI-powered satellite data is reshaping defense, navigation, and global security. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A rebrand in the space world. MaxR Technologies was a space and satellite company formed in 2017 and then taken private by Advent International for $6.4 billion in 2023. Advent split the portfolio into two companies. Now, more than two years later, both are getting new names. MaxR Space Systems, the satellite manufacturer, is now Lanteras. And MaxR Intelligence, the Earth Observation business, will now be now. operate as Vantor.

Vantor's CEO, Dan Smoot, says the time was right, given the massive transformation underway. Vantor, you know, MaxR has an incredible legacy. We've been building, you know, exquisite satellites for years. We've been one of the most exquisite regards to the foundational data that we have done in regards to mapping the world with 2 and 3D. But over the last couple years, we've been transforming the company. And one of the biggest transformations we've gone through, of course, is moving from just an imagery company into a true software company and solving big problems using this foundational data that

we've built for years and years. On top of launching a new constellation, both Vantor and Lantaris will remain portfolio companies of Advent International. On this episode, Vantor's CEO Dan Smoot on the name change, the software transition, and the intersection of AI and space. I'm Morgan Brennan and this is Manifest Space. Joining me now, Dan Smoot, the CEO of MaxR Intelligence, or should I say Vantor. So maybe we start the conversation right there, Dan. It's great to speak with you. You're rebranding, renaming the company.

Why? Great question. And we're very excited here at now Vantor. You know, MaxR has an incredible legacy. We've been building, you know, exquisite satellites for years. We've been one of the most exquisite in regards to. to the foundational data that we have done in regards to mapping the world in 2 and 3D.

But over the last couple years, we've been transforming the company. And one of the biggest transformations we've gone through, of course, is moving from just an imagery company into a true software company and solving big problems using this foundational data that we've built for years and years. On top of launching a new constellation over the last two years, we've really modernized what we can do bringing from space to ground.

And if you look at it, what we've done is really built new software capabilities that are unmatched in the industry. Things like building ground navigation systems or landscape navigation for drones. And if think about in conflicted areas, a lot of the adversaries will use GPS-deny capabilities. And you can use this foundational data now to really have successful missions. We've done advanced capabilities using AI models in regards to building true object and site monitoring and maritime awareness. that allows us really to do something in insights that haven't been done before, and we're seeing a major uptick in those areas. And then last but not least, building a true foundational platform,

which we call TensorFlow, which allows us to deliver ground capabilities that are unmatched in the industry. So it's a really exciting time for this transition to Vantor. And also part of our transformation that we've been doing is actually the financial modeling for our investors to shift from a traditional perpetual company truly to a real. reoccurring revenue business. And that's been a major shift for our business as well. So when you talk about that, there's a lot to get into there. And I want to get to the technology

and the capabilities of some of these different things that you laid out. But first, Maxar, as it was originally existing as sort of now two different companies, MaxR Intelligence, now Ventor being one piece of it, was taken private back in 2023 by Advent. When you talk about financials and recurring revenue model, I guess what does that mean and how does that speak to the growth of the company now with these new offerings? Yeah, it's been a really important transition for us is really shifting our business to a reoccurring-based business. If you look at our first half of this year, 90% of our revenue has shifted to reoccurring. That's over $900 million in ARR, which is really important for our investors and they look at the strength in the

financials as we move forward as a company. In addition, we've, you're seeing extended growth in these new software applications. We've added two new products into our business, Raptor and Century, and those two businesses have already built a pipeline of over $300 million. And so we're seeing this extensive growth in our new applications, and these will all be in a reoccurring basis as well. And on top of that, our international markets with the shift in geopolitical challenges has also grown dramatically.

So we bring these new applications to those markets, and we're just going to be, you know, continuously strengthening our base every month. What does that customer base look like? Is it mostly governments? Is it private sector? It's a balance of both. We've seen a major uptick, especially in the rearmament of what's going on in Europe,

on the defense and intel communities. But we've also seen our modern capabilities also enhance our commercial customers who are doing foundational mapping and new consumer-based applications, like everything from watches to, you know, the phone delivery of, you know, 3D mapping for, you know, personal navigation. So we've seen the applications work in both the intel and defense as well as the commercial space, but really we've seen a major growth in the intel and defense side on the international basis.

So you just talks about some of these new capabilities and offerings that you've brought into the marketplace here that go above and beyond geospatial and earth imaging. I guess how to think about that portfolio and how these different capabilities fit together. now? Yeah, this has been the biggest part of our transformation, our journey. When you really think about what the customers are looking for, they're really looking for speed to decision making. And so how do we actually bring our applications to solve to these problems?

And a lot of them, we've actually developed in real-time scenarios and in dealing with almost battlefront type of situations. So if you look at our Raptor capability, for example, having the foundational data that we have in understanding the world in 3D, which allows us to understand the elevation of buildings, the elevation of mountains, that truly gives them the capability to deliver a solution where traditional GPS navigation would be denied. And so that is a way of using the foundational data to actually solve real-time problems. And that's where the journey and the shift has been happening is to really help the people on the ground make faster decisioning. And

And in our data, if you think about it, even GPS is not as accurate as most people think it is, our data actually, because it's landscape, can actually get within one to two meters of accuracy, and that's important when you're making decisions in a battlefront. In Century, the same thing, it's looking at how to use that data, but to use advanced capabilities like using AI or large language models to be able to sift through not just our data, but a combination of multiple people's data to really make decisions on what's happening, you know, amongst the maritime area, you know, on falling ships. And it's not, by the way, just in the, you know, the naval perspective. We also do things in regards to making sure that,

you know, illegal fishing's not happening. So to be able to monitor movement has become really important about how we can actually disseminate data from multi-sources and bring our capabilities on top of it to really give that exquisite capability to understand exactly what, you know, objects are on the ground and moving around, both on, you know, site, you know, if you think about a lot of governments right now, they're managing major growth in real estate development. And they like to understand all that movement. If you're looking at historical stagnation of the way the data was used in the past, they really couldn't see all the rapid change that's going on on the ground. And so these applications are developing very quickly in the marketplace.

And that's why I think, excuse me, Vantor is really differentiating yourself today. So how are you collecting all of that data? How much of this is space-based via satellites? How much of this is terrestrial and other methods? There's a balance of both. You think about the defense and intel community. They have sensors that look at from ground up and space down. The other thing, too, is we have strong partnerships.

We use other company sensor information and pull it together with ours. So it's not just, you know, our electro-optical imaging, since, you know, data that is the most exquisite in the industry. It's also using some of the best, you know, pure data as well. And then bringing that in with other companies data on the ground and really doing that dissemination across the data. So I would say that the electro-optical imaging that we provide is still really exquisite. I mean, that 30-centimeter data, we can actually see things in incredible detail, not just it's a vehicle, but what kind of of vehicle it is. But we use other pieces of data so we understand how to use our information more intelligently. And that's kind of like proactively tasking where we want that information

to come from. And so it's really bringing all the data together now to be much faster in regards to using our capabilities. And then you just mentioned it. You touched on it, but the role of AI in all of this. How quickly can you, I guess, pull that data together, run it through, analyze it and be able to apply generative AI in real time to it. That is the key advantage that we're, you know, we're doing right now and we're using standard capabilities. We realize that, you know, we have the most, you know, the biggest data base in regards to, from a foundational perspective, it's actually using other people's AI capabilities really to help us disseminate that information. And that piece is, it is the hardest piece because

is you have to teach the models. You have to actually do, you know, teach objects. And so there's a tremendous investment that we have to make to make that data really usable in regards to be able to apply these new models to it. That has probably been the fastest acceleration that we've seen. So we've spent the last couple of years really working on building the data out to be able to be used in an intelligent format. Just raw data without actually identifying or tagging the information.

you know, it doesn't, it's not nearly as effective. So you really have to invest a lot of time up front to make that data really effective. And then you can use standard length, large language models and AI capabilities from some of the leading firms and to really accelerate your solution. How does this compare to some of the other companies that are, I guess, more generally in this marketplace?

I think about Planet Labs or some of the others, for example. I think the biggest differentiation is the quality of our data. If you think about what Vantor does with the new constellation, we have the largest constellation mapping the world every day in regards to 30 centimeters. And what that means is we can see exquisite detail on the ground. Our competition, though they may have some broader coverage, they just don't have the exquisite capabilities that we do

to really identify information in real time. And now that we can see locations almost 15 times a day, and really, you know, get the coverage that we need, we're just bringing that data to a much finer level than any other company in the world right now. And I think that's a huge differentiator for us moving forward. Plans to go public again in the future? These are conversations that we're having with the investors all the time.

As you know, private equity, they have multiple models that I have to run with. My job is to make sure that we just get into the strongest financial position possible. And we've made just such tremendous headway in the last two years that I'm excited about any of the options it gives me in the near future. Yeah. And of course, being private and being owned by private equity, what does that enable in terms of being able to build out these new offerings and think about space in a new way? Yeah, I think if you look back to when private, there's definitely a, you know, a capital challenge in regards to getting a new constellation off the ground. And I think what going private has really enabled us is to really recapitalize the company and more importantly, you know, use time to actually, you know, transform it. So that's the one thing that's really advanced when you actually, you know, are using the private equity marketplace is, is how do you actually can use your liquidity to really differentiate yourself? And you don't have the quarterly pressures in the decision making that, you know, traditional, maybe public companies have as you're going through that transformation.

And that really allows you to set yourself up for the future. So large capital projects, not just on orbit of what we've done with our Legion launches and constellation, but also, you know, eliminating things like tech debt. We've had old systems and old capabilities that we've had to modernize. And I'm very proud of our teams here, Ventura, because of the fact that we've actually eliminated lagging debt, which is allowed us to take that capitalization and move it into new products. And so you're seeing much more investment and the new features, new capabilities and new software applications. versus trying to manage that legacy debt. And that's the advantage of what you have when you don't have the quarter to quarter pressures

that we have traditionally for us to actually modernize the company. Now, let me be very clear. All of our investors want to know exactly what we're doing on a month to month on a quarter to quarter basis, but it allows us to just invest differently to get through this transformation.

And that will enable us to be able to get back to the public market in the future. I want to go back something you were talking about earlier and that's ground and land navigation systems for drones. drones are obviously huge area focus, so is counter drone. I think about the role that will play in terms of Golden Dome here in the U.S. and mini golden domes, which I know the Army is looking at as well, too. How do you see what I would call commercial space and defense tech?

How do you see these worlds converging and how do you see those investment flows moving forward? Well, I think the advantage of commercial companies is one, the speed of which we can operate and we can innovate. So if you think about what we've done with our Raptor product on the drone battlefront is we've actually seen in real-time theater scenarios where GPS-deny capabilities from an adversary can actually really disrupt what the drone manufacturing could do. And it really took the commercial industry to work with the defense organizations to really come up with solutions. And we could do it at pace.

And that's why companies like Saab, you know, European-based company is. partnered with us to be able to drive this navigation capability or AIDC in Taiwan when they look at the future adversarial threat to be able to have these capabilities in place. Commercial companies we can just operate faster and we can actually apply our software capabilities faster. And the other thing too is a company like Vantor, we can actually look at every manufacturer and we're not just running against one OEM, we're running against multiple OEMs. And that's why you've actually we've seen us double down in our partnership relationships across the business. And I mentioned a couple just a moment ago.

U.S. versus Europe and other parts of the world. I guess what do you see in terms of growth trajectories? I think it's great question because I think I see it almost equal in both. The one thing that's very encouraging in the U.S. is, you know, the executive order to make sure that we're modernizing our defense capabilities by using software capabilities and modernizing through commercial. And we've actually seen that response from a lot of the agencies that we work with, which is how do you actually leverage commercial more to make sure you can actually

modernize without having to replace full fleets and so forth. And that's actually where, like, our ground navigation systems will actually play. And we've actually seen that even in battle readiness. We just recently launched a relationship with Anderl to talk about how you do modeling and simulation in augmented reality. And that's a really important thing, you know, for future battle readiness. And those are types of things you're seeing the U.S. government really doubled down it. On the international front, you know, the recent changes in regards to the kind of rearmament of Europe and people, you know, really preparing for what's going on in Asia PAC.

We've seen governments trying to catch up into having capabilities that oftentimes the U.S. had provided in the past. And I think that that's also opened up the markets for bringing modern capabilities. And we're seeing that across the world. And I think that's why we've seen our double-digit growth recently in regards to the international markets because they really are trying to catch up to some of the capabilities that have been offered, you know, to the allies in the past. Well, it's certainly a very exciting and dynamic time. Dan Smoot of Vantar, formerly known as Max, our Intelligence, it's great to speak to you about all of it. Thank you.

Morgan, thank you for the time. Really excited about it all. That does it for this episode of Manifest Space. Make sure you never miss a launch by following us wherever you get. your podcasts and by watching our coverage on closing bell overtime. I'm Morgan Brennan.