The list of backers for a UK government and Bharti Enterprise-led bid to acquire troubled satellite service provider OneWeb grew, with Hughes Network Systems committing $50 million to a consortium aimed to relaunch the company’s operations.

Pradman Kaul, Hughes Network Systems president, described the consortium as a “winning team”, which was bringing “the right players together to fulfil the promise of the OneWeb constellation in deploying low-latency services for communities, enterprises, governments, airplanes and ships”.

Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said the move underlined OneWeb’s “exciting commercial prospects, reflected in the ongoing discussions with some of the world’s leading strategic and financial investors”.

Alongside the investment, Hughes Network Systems announced it will continue operating as a technology and distribution partner to OneWeb.

The UK and Bharti Global-led consortium won a bid to acquire OneWeb for a total of $1 billion earlier this month, after the UK-based company filed for bankruptcy in late March.

Financial Times (FT) reported the main backers will acquire 45 per cent of OneWeb each, with the remaining 10 per cent to be owned by SoftBank and other creditors.