[Non-English content ] Luis Gomes will hold a presentation in English. Without further ado, Mr. Gomes, please, the floor is yours.
Thank you very much. Thank you for having me this morning. I would like to talk to you a little bit about our company and what we are doing, what are our plans, where we are right now, and where we plan to go. For those that are not familiar with AAC Clyde Space, we are a company that focus on making hardware for space. We make satellites, we sell components, subsystems that are used by other manufacturers to actually incorporate in their own designs. We tend to focus more on the 50 kilo range, up to 50 kilo spacecraft, but we sell parts for other manufacturers that are then using them in much bigger satellites. We have traditionally supplied parts and subsystems from two factories. We've got two factories, one in Uppsala and one in Glasgow.
We are headquartered in Uppsala, but we manufacture satellites in both right now, in both facilities. Traditionally we have developed quite a big range of CubeSats in Glasgow. We have been around for quite some time. The two companies that led to the formation of the AAC Clyde Space Group were actually established in 2005. We have, over the years, been present in many of the small satellites that have been built around the world. Of the 1,500 or so, you'll find parts that were manufactured by us on a large number of those. We have been growing our business. We started, as I said, with subsystems. We have evolved our business to focus more on satellites and services provided with satellites. Through that, we have actually grown our order backlog.
Towards the end of quarter two 2020, compared to the end of 2018, we have grown our order backlog by 150%. This comes largely from the growth that we see in the market, particularly the growth for platforms for satellites and for services associated with satellites. This is a market that is forecast to grow exponentially over the next few years. We have seen that ourselves over the past 10 years. It is expected that between 2019 and 2028, this market is worth something in the order of $42 billion. This includes several different sub-sectors. There is the satellite manufacturing, there is the launch, and there is services, the services that are associated with these satellites. What we have been doing is growing our presence in those markets, in that market, and particularly in the services market.
We as a company, we serve both institutional and commercial customers. We are present globally, so we sell in Japan, we sell in United States, in South America, Europe, Africa. We have quite a wide range of customers. We are supplying both those highly commercial organizations that are building a business case, and they're actually providing commercial services to the market, and also governments and universities, many of whom are developing new technologies, or they are demonstrating some services or some technology or some science. We supply, as I said, from the small component that is used for other sat, being integrated in other satellites, to highly integrated full solutions for our customers. We are, as I said, we are moving very much into what we call Space-as-a-Service. This is a concept where we actually do the full space segment for our customers.
That is something that is becoming increasingly more desirable for many customers. As I mentioned, this industry is growing exponentially. The number of satellites is expected to grow several-fold over the next few years. We have been seeing that. We now see quite a wide range of requirements and inquiries about more satellites, bigger constellations. This is something that is following the trend in the space market, a trend that started probably 10 years ago, where smaller satellites are now actually taking over from larger spacecraft. Manufacturers like ourselves that are operating in that commercial sector of small satellites are becoming more and more seen as the standard for spacecraft builds, for satellite builds. What this is allowing is that when you do smaller spacecraft, smaller satellites, we are able to actually do them for a much lower cost.
They're much lower cost to produce, but they're also much lower cost to launch. What that is doing is driving a process, is driving a new way of thinking. What people are doing, what a lot of our customers are doing, is thinking, okay, now I can have a big constellation, and that big constellation can do a lot more than if I had just one satellite. By doing smaller spacecraft, doing smaller satellites, we are effectively lowering the cost of access to space, and by doing that, we are enabling a whole new range of applications that were not possible 10, 15 years ago. Because of that, the sector is growing. There are plenty of new ideas, there are plenty of new opportunities. As I mentioned, we supply from subsystems, components, unit. These might be power systems, onboard computers, radios, solar panels.
We supply those to a wide range of customers around the world. Those are then integrated into their own products, into their own satellites that then they launch. We also supply, and where we see biggest growth in the last few years has been in missions. That is full spacecraft, satellites that we design, we build on behalf of our customers, and then we deliver to them. We refer to that usually as platform supply or turnkey missions. Those are the traditional way of approaching space. What we have started is to also provide services to our customers, and we provide a variety of services. Be it just supporting them through the operations of the satellites, the early operations of the satellites once they are launched, selecting a launch, or actually do the full managed service for them.
What we do there is we operate the spacecraft, we take the whole insurance, all the ground segments, all the ground stations, everything, and then we just provide them the data they require. That is more and more attractive to many customers because that means that they can focus on their business. They do not have to actually focus on having specialists in the satellite side. They don't have to have the ground stations, they don't have to have the knowledge and the infrastructure to manage satellites. We can do that for them. We have those anyway. We have ground stations, we have networks of ground stations. We have staff that know how to operate the satellites, so we can do that for them. It's a much more cost-effective manner of operating a constellation for customers.
For us, it just means that we reuse a lot more our equipment, we reuse our ground stations and our staff. That actually also has advantages for both sides. That is driving very much a change in the way of thinking. In terms of Space-as-a-Service, this is a combination, as I said, of fully operating missions. In this case, we actually build, we design, build, and launch, and then operate the spacecraft. One example of this contract is a contract we signed last year with ORBCOMM, one of the world's largest operators of, or providers of M2M systems from, or communication from space. We signed a contract with them to supply them with AIS data, that's automatic identification system data from ships around the world.
What these two satellites that we are building will do, we will own these satellites, and these satellites will be basically collecting data over the oceans, downloading that data. We download it, we get it to the ground stations to the ground. We then actually process that data a little bit, just strip the communication packets, and then send the data, the messages that the customer wants to their computer. They will receive on their servers the final product. They will use it for their own purposes. That allows them to actually focus on their core business that is supplying information, and not having to deal with the satellites. We will actually own this spacecraft. We are actually doing the build right now. This is a model that we see more and more becoming more and more popular towards the future.
That is driving our growth as a company. As we are transitioning from just being a subsystems and component supplier, more missions into more Space-as-a-Service, we see that market becoming dominant. That already can be seen on our order backlog. It is dominated by the platforms and Space-as-a-Service business. This is not to say that we won't continue to do components and subsystems. We actually see that as the bedrock of our business. Not only for the business side, but also for the technology, allows us to remain a vertically integrated company. Also because we see this as the natural progression. We are going to see us growing more into the Space-as-a-Service business. We have a range of customers. These are a mixture of, what I would say, startups, but also very well-established companies.
Many of these are actually transitioning very quickly from the startup to the established market leader right now. As you see, we are not just supplying for instance, to universities or to governments. We actually have quite a big commercial drive as a company. We see this as the future of space, where we believe in changing the economics of our services, our data is provided from space. As such, we are engaging more and more with commercial organizations to actually achieve that. We have a plan. We started with a plan this year that actually comes from last year. We started our thinking about how to grow the company, how to consolidate the business. We had a few legacy projects last year that we had to address. We started by sorting those projects out.
Consolidating our business, we have been looking at how to reduce costs. We have actually done quite a lot of work on reducing the number of. For instance, streamlining the number of versions that we have of products and components, and also looking at standard platform, standardized offerings that we can bring to the market without requiring quite a lot of non-recurring engineering every time we have to change the payload, or the customer is interested in something slightly different. We are increasing our production capacity. We have been looking at ways of growing what we can do in the current footprint so that we don't have to have great capital expenditure in new facilities. We have done quite a lot of this. You will have seen that recently we have announced that we'll start producing satellites also in Uppsala.
This comes as a result of one project, but it's also something, it's an aim that we have had for some time, to actually start using our facilities in Uppsala to also produce satellites. Just by doing that, we'll increase our production capacity by about 20% per year. What we want to grow is from the current eight satellites a year that we are producing. These are different satellites, so these are satellites that all require quite a lot of engineering associated with them. With them, we want to grow that capacity to about 20 satellites per year. Of course, if we are talking about a constellation that is all exactly the same, so exactly the same satellites, we can do much bigger builds, and we could do runs of up to about 100 satellites per year.
If we have actually exactly the same design, that becomes more just a production exercise. Currently, we are still doing very much what we call ones and twos. That is one or two satellites, and they're all slightly different. They all have slightly different payloads, and they require quite a lot of engineering. We are increasing that capacity. We also want to expand geographically. We have long said that we want to expand, among others, to the U.S. market. We see the U.S. market as the biggest space market in the world. It's very active. There are plenty of things happening there. We have always had an objective of being present there. We are already quite successful in the U.S. market. They account for about 30% of our revenue, but we believe we can grow it, and particularly, we can grow that market into the mission side.
We continue to look at a U.S. manufacturing facility. We have recently joined the OTCQX market. This is an ambition that we had for some time so that our shares are more accessible to the U.S. market. We'll continue to do that. We are looking also at other M&A possibilities. We look at those to supplement not only our geographical footprint, but also our technology and our products. We want to actually sell more coherent sets of products. Of course, one of the things we are doing right now is to develop more Space-as-a-Service offerings. Particularly, we are looking at how we can serve several customers using the same satellite. As we make payloads smaller, as satellites are smaller, it does open the option that one satellite can now serve several different customers.
We believe that that is actually one of the areas of Space-as-a-Service that will become quite attractive in the near future. We have some key milestones that we have set out for ourselves this year. One is to actually do finalize our in-house test capability. Our objective there is that we are very vertically integrated. Of course, we always look at if it makes sense to do in-house or just buy parts or components. Most times, we can do it in-house for less than we can buy, so we do many of these things in-house. Testing, in particular, is an area that we feel that is under-serviced in the market. Actually, having the ability to do it in-house makes our business stronger. We are opening the new satellite integration facility in Uppsala. We actually might be ahead of schedule there.
We will probably be doing it towards the beginning of quarter four, not at the end. We are growing our workforce to increase the breadth of skills, but also our manufacturing capacity. One thing that is quite important for us is the first iteration of the Platform Functional Unit. This is what we call the PFU. This is highly integrated, pretty much software-defined, onboard control system that will allow us on a very small volume. This is a unit that is very small. It's about 1U, so 10 by 10 by 10 cm. This will allow us to control satellites from one-kilo satellites all the way to 300, 500-kilo satellites using the same onboard computer. What that will make is it will make it much easier to reconfigure our platform.
When we have a different payload, when we have different requirements from our customer, we can actually very easily reconfigure the platform without having to go through the redesign of avionics. Just by changing the software, we can actually provide them a new solution. As key takeaways, I'd just like to say that we are operating in a market that is growing exponentially. We are a very well-established and well-positioned player in this market. We have a long heritage, and we have shown that we are capable of not only designing satellites for space that actually make them work in space. Our components and our subsystems have proven over the last 15 years that they're reliable, and they are very high performance. Offer a very high performance to our customers. We are offering end-to-end solutions, and state-of-the-art small satellites.
We operate both in the industrial, commercial, and the institutional side of the business. We have a clear and financed plan to grow both organically and through bolt-on acquisitions. Our objective is to become the world leader in commercial small satellites. I will finish there. I will take some questions now. I will just leave you with a summary of our financials from last quarter. I will finish there. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Luis. I will start with a couple of questions from the listeners. The first one is about a potential listing on Nasdaq Capital Market. Do you see that in the foreseeable future, moving up?
It is. We have considered several options, and we consider to look at them. We continue to consider them, sorry. We continue to look at different options in terms of our listings in the future. Yes, that is one of those. We have decided that right now we will do a join the OTCQX. We need to build our shareholder base. It is one of the things that is in our future. Yes, we want to move to different markets and as the company grows.
That sounds good. Speaking of listings, perhaps you could say a few words about the pending listing in the U.S. market as well. I guess you target retail investors there, or is there an institutional investor base that you see as potential shareholders in AAC as well?
Both. We are targeting institutional investors. We have actually done quite a lot over the last few months, in terms of, raising awareness about AAC Clyde Space in the U.S., in the investor community. We also see retail. Our objective in the future is that we would have a variety of investors in the U.S. As I said, it's the world's biggest space market, so there is quite a lot of appetite for this kind of business. We are working on that right now. We have, as I said, we have done quite a lot over the last few months, with institutional investors in U.S.
We have a campaign planned for the fall, for the autumn, so we'll be doing quite a lot of work in the U.S. In terms of joining the OTC market, this is the first step. This is to raise awareness to actually start making our shares available to the U.S. investors. As I said, we are targeting both. I would say in the first phase, we are interacting more with institutional investors. As the business develops, I think we'll get interest also on the retail market.
Speaking about share price, we have a couple of questions from the audience as well regarding the share price of AAC, which despite a very large order inflow and orders booked, is trending downwards. Can you say something about that? Perhaps there is a communicative issue, or what kind of arguments do you hear when you speak with investors about pros and cons with investing in your company?
The market makes the price. Our ability to control that is limited. What we can do and what we do every day is focusing on managing the company well and grow it, grow the company, grow our business. That's our objective. There has been traditionally some volatility on our price. There is a lot of transactions. I would like to see a higher price for our shares, of course. As I say, that is the market that makes that. My job is to manage the company, is to actually ensure that there is growth that is sustainable. That's what I'm focusing on, and that's what we are focusing on. We are also doing more, we are reaching out more in terms of communication to the market. We are doing events like this today.
Also, as I said, we have engaged very much with institutional investors over the last few months, both in Europe and in U.S. We want to do more over the coming few months, to actually put across what we are doing, what are the plans that the company has. We have changed our message slightly. We are trying to be more forward-looking on our communications. We believe that's an important aspect of communicating our plans for the future.
Yeah. There are more questions from the audience in this particular matter. For instance, speaking about M&A, you say you have a plan to growth both organically and through acquisitions, and I mean, with the falling share price, the sort of value of your currency, i.e. the AAC share falls. Do you see that as a potential limiting factors for transactions going forward?
It doesn't make it easier, but it doesn't stop it. We, as I said before and I keep saying on my presentations, we have a plan for that. We continue to look into how we can grow the company by acquisition. When it makes sense, we will be looking at companies. Of course, if the share price was higher, it would be easier to do it. With the share price a bit lower, we have to actually choose our targets more carefully and choose what we are doing, and we can't probably grow as fast as we would like. So far, it has not been an obstacle. It has not been what has stopped us. The reason why we haven't announced something, why we haven't done an operation in the past, is because we haven't found the right targets.
There is a slight, or perhaps major, operational transition here, going from delivery of components and products to the Space-as-a-Service concept. Do you see that that entails higher capital expenditures and investments? If so, how are those plans in relationship to current balance sheet and cash requirements?
It requires investment. I'd say that in the long term, when it is sustainable is actually, probably, when it is operating, when we have several of these constellations or several of these satellites, several Space-as-a-Service deals going on, it's actually a pretty sustainable business. At the beginning, requires a little bit of investment. Of course, we are being cautious with that, also we are looking at alternative ways of financing that. For instance, some of our developments, we got a grant from the Scottish Enterprise recently. That is one way of financing some of our developments in technology and new products. In terms of Space-as-a-Service, we also have ways of financing that, some of which might involve some participation of the customer in that. Sometimes you can actually do some of that financing like that.
We will always have to evaluate our needs as we go along, and we'll always look into the deals in terms of do they make sense for us. In terms of financing, yes, we are investigating different ways of how we can finance that change in our business makeup.
Would that possibly entail a new share issue? Would you see that as an option going forward?
We are looking at different options. That's one of them. We are looking at different options.
Time to move away from the share price and look into some operational questions. I think the VDES project together with Saab and your other partner there, ORBCOMM, sounds interesting. You're targeting marine communications. Does this mean that you need to build the complete infrastructure, like worldwide coverage of satellites, or is it possible to take this project piecemeal, like launching a few satellites in certain regions and then building upon that? Can you just give us some flavor of that project?
It is a system that can grow. It is already useful with a few satellites because of part of that system will deliver effectively AIS next generation, so that is about the navigation side. With that, we can already offer a few services. Companies like ORBCOMM already have a very strong business in AIS. We are working with them on two satellites for that purpose. There is already quite a lot of work going on in that area. We can build a few satellites and provide a service. The communication side can already operate like that because there are some communications that are mostly around navigation ability and safety at sea. Those can already be provided with a few satellites, if we're talking a very small constellation.
Of course, there is quite a large interest in the scalability because that system actually can be scaled to a much bigger system, providing not only the navigation services, but also a range of new services. For instance, I look very much at this VDES project as a key enabler in the future of autonomous navigation. When we want to have actually fleets of vessels all over the world without crews, we are going to need a way of communicating and ensuring that they are safe, control them, but also to make sure that they're not colliding with other ships. This offers a very simple system once you've got enough satellites in orbit, a very simple system of doing that. Much less dependent on broadband communications that are always going to be difficult to implement.
What this allows is it then allows us to grow a system that can take into account the new needs of the shipping industry. As I say, we can start with a small one, so providing the kind of AIS services that are already provided these days with some enhanced capabilities. We can start actually using the same ground technology, so the same vessel technology that we use for AIS now for also receiving small information like weather charts or navigation charts. We can do that using this system. Then we can grow into a much bigger system, and I think that in terms of interest, given the interest on the new maritime technologies, this is a system that has enormous potential for growing in the industry.
Just to finish off, I see that we're running out of time, but can you tell us a little bit about how this project is structured? Do you have, for instance, cost-sharing agreements with Saab and ORBCOMM for the development or the project, or how is it structured, the partnership?
Of course, some of the details are confidential, so I won't go into those details. What I can say is that we have formed a consortium between the three parties, and we are actually working together. We are all actually investing on this project, and we are working together to deliver the first satellite, the demonstration service, and then we will decide what we do next. We see potential, but we want to do this the right way, so we want to actually work not only with the technology, understanding the technology, implementing it, but then also look in terms of what is the business, how we can make it work. Right now, what we have is this consortium, an equal part consortium, and we'll be working with Trafikverket. We are working with them on delivering this first satellite.
Great. Thank you very much, Luis Gomes, CEO of AAC Clyde Space. That's all the time we have. Thank you for an interesting presentation. Have a great day.