Satlyt raises $8M seed to run AI on satellites without building its own
What's the deal? SatlytDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Sunnyvale- and Nairobi-based startup building software to run AI models on satellites, has raised an $8 million seed round led by non sibi venturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. Founder Rama Afullo, a former GoogleDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and SpaceXDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → product manager, says the company wants to let many satellites share the load of large computing jobs in orbit.
What's the endgame? Unlike SpaceX, Google, or startups such as Starcloud, Satlyt isn't building spacecraft. It is building software to operate across many companies' satellites, with Afullo comparing the approach to VMware and Snowflake.
"The folks like SpaceX who are doing orbital data centers — if they are the iPhone, we'll build Android as a horizontally integrated, open ecosystem," he said.
How does the product work? Satlyt's software has flown on two demonstration missions, cutting the cost and delay of sending data back to Earth. Earlier this year, it deployed Google DeepMind's Gemma AI model onboard a MomentusDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → spacecraft, shrinking a transmission about software errors by more than 60% — savings Afullo says can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars per satellite a year.
Why now? The round lands as SpaceX goes all-in on orbital data centers. Satlyt's software launches this week on a SpaceX rocket alongside the first prototype for Google's space data center effort, Project Suncatcher.
This week's launch puts the software on a spacecraft built by Indian startup TakeMe2Space, serving three customers: NASA, which is testing protocols for cloud computing in space; Stellerian, a space-surveillance startup testing image processing; and TakeMe2Space itself.
What's the money for? Satlyt's next project is to build a shared computing system spanning two satellites, which it expects to attempt next year. Success would let it operate a true compute cloud in orbit as a third-party provider.
"The way to think about it is that we turn your satellite into a revenue-generating managed service," Afullo said.
The signal: At $8 million, the round sits in the top 5% of all-time US enterprise software seed deals, a sign of investor appetite for infrastructure plays on space computing. With few high-powered GPUs yet in orbit, Satlyt is betting the near-term value lies in software efficiencies before a larger market arrives.
Read more: TechCrunch
Image credit: Atmospheric Infrared Sounder
