C
CesiumAstro
Scalable phased array communication systems for aerospace
About CesiumAstro
CesiumAstro develops advanced communication systems for satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles, and other space and airborne platforms. The company was founded in Austin, Texas, in 2017 by Shey Sabripour, an aerospace industry veteran with over three decades of experience. Sabripour's journey began with a passion for space, leading him to earn a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from North Dakota State University. His extensive career includes 24 years at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, where he held several leadership roles, including Director of Spacecraft Design, and was instrumental in developing the U.S. Navy's first MUOS communication satellite. Prior to establishing CesiumAstro, he served as the Chief Technology Officer at Firefly Space Systems. Sabripour's vision was to make satellite technology, particularly software-defined and agile systems, more accessible and less bespoke than traditional large-scale satellites.
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The company specializes in full-stack, end-to-end hardware and software solutions, including active phased array (APA) antennas, software-defined radios (SDRs), and complete communication payloads. CesiumAstro’s core technology enables electronically steered communication beams, which allows for greater flexibility, security, and resistance to jamming compared to mechanically steered antennas. Its product portfolio includes the Nightingale SDR, the Vireo integrated multi-beam RF payload, and the Element satellite platform. The business model is centered on providing scalable, plug-and-play hardware manufactured through commercial processes, which reduces development time and cost. This approach allows CesiumAstro to serve both national security and commercial clients, including government agencies like NASA and the Department of Defense, as well as commercial space enterprises. The systems support a wide range of applications, such as inter-satellite links, high-speed data downlinks, lunar communications, and 5G/NTN networks.
Since its inception, CesiumAstro has achieved significant milestones, including a Series A funding round of $12.4 million in 2019 and a Series B+ round of $65 million in 2024, bringing its total equity raised to $156 million. The company has expanded its operations with facilities in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Japan. In 2023, it acquired TXMission, a U.K.-based developer of SDRs and modems, to broaden its technology portfolio. CesiumAstro has secured major contracts, including providing communication payloads for the Space Development Agency’s satellite constellations and developing radio units for NASA's LunaNet to support lunar navigation. Keywords: phased array antennas, software-defined radio, satellite communications, aerospace communication systems, LEO constellations, space technology, active phased array, communication payloads, inter-satellite links, space hardware, UAV communications, Ka-band, RF electronics, space-based connectivity, New Space, high-throughput satellites, airborne platforms, satellite payloads, defense communications, lunar navigation
At a glance
- Status
- Operational
- Founded
- 2017
- Headquarters
- Bee Cave, United States
- Employees
- 452
- Open positions
- 205
- Dealroom signal
- 94.6/100
- Sector
- Space, Defence Applications, Aviation and Aerospace, Space Tech, Rumoured $1B, Communication and Connectivity Satellites, Space Vehicles Components and Payloads, Spacecraft Parts, Structures, and Payloads, Space Upstream, Dual-Use Tech
- Technology
- Hardware, Deep Tech, IoT InternetOfThings
- Business model
- Manufacturing
- Client focus
- b2b
- Investment activity
- 2 companies, latest Feb 2026
- Capital deployed
- —
- Preferred round
- ACQUISITION
Knowledge graph
More headlines
Funding history
Company financing events and reported valuations.
| Deal type | Date | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DEBTDebt | Feb 2026 | $200M | — | Export-Import Bank of the United States · JP Morgan | ↗ |
| SERIES COther financing | Feb 2026 | $270M | $1.1B | Trousdale Ventures · Airbus Ventures · Janus Henderson Investors · Woven Capital | ↗ |
Growth signals
Latest recorded traffic for CesiumAstro is 16K monthly website visits, up 14.3% over the last three months. CesiumAstro's team grew 28.4% over the past year.
Open positions
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Investments and acquisitions
Recent portfolio relationships for companies that also act as investors or acquirers.
1Aardvark LLCChantilly, United StatesTransforming defense capabilities with advanced technology
→
Jariet TechRedondo Beach, United States
→
VidrovrNew York City, United StatesDevelops multimodal computer vision and machine learning systems to index, tag, and understand video
$10Mvaluation
TXMissionSanta Barbara, United StatesSmallsat modems by TXMission - highest data rates for smallsat modems
→
Investors
From Dealroom's funding and investor records, grouped by the round each investor first entered.
Seed1 investor entered at this stage
AFWERX
Series A15 investors entered at this stage
Airbus Ventures
Kleiner Perkins
Analog Devices
Franklin Templeton Investments
Lavrock Ventures
Heico
L3Harris Technologies- FVForever Ventures
Trousdale Ventures
Development Bank of Japan
Quanta Computer
InMotion Ventures
Mesh Ventures
Assembly Ventures
Matter Venture Partners
Series B and later4 investors entered at this stage
Export-Import Bank of the United States
JP Morgan
Janus Henderson Investors
Woven Capital
Source: Dealroom Talent Intelligence.
Global footprint
team presence
Market sentiment
An AI-synthesised read of the highest-engagement posts about CesiumAstro on X, ranked by likes and reposts, corporate channels excluded.
Reading the room on X — pulling top posts and synthesizing themes…
Source: X recent search ranked by engagement (likes + retweets) · Synthesis by Claude · Cached for 1 hour
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