Less than a year after raising sizable round, a San Francisco satellite imaging startup has secured a fresh infusion of funding.
Capella Space has closed a $60 million "growth equity" round from the U.S. Innovative Technology Fund, a venture firm launched by former entertainment executive Thomas Tull, the company said on Tuesday,
The new round brings Capella's total funding to about $250 million including debt, according to CNBC.
In April, the company announced a $97 million Series C round led by NightDragon and also included DCVC and Cota Capital.
Capella designs satellites for space-based Earth observation and imaging that utilize synthetic aperture radar sensors, or SARs, which can operate 24-7 even through conditions that typically impede visibility like clouds, smoke, fog, rain and during nighttime hours.
"Predominantly SAR has been a government capability that is extremely complex and costly," founder and CEO Payam Banazadeh told Bay Area Inno in April. "We have taken that and miniaturized the tech to put it on small satellites that can be used for commercial purposes."
It even counts some U.S. government agencies as customers including the Air Force and National Reconnaissance Office, which oversees satellite intelligence efforts.
In April, Banazadeh told Bay Area Inno that it was also working with the Ukrainian government. The country had been invaded by Russia just a couple of months earlier.
"It is mostly cloudy in Ukraine this time of year, and the government there doesn't have the right satellites to monitor the situation," Banazadeh said at the time, though he declined to provide specific details about its satellite imagery was being used in the conflict.
In addition to the new funding, Capella says it hired three new executives, including former Zillow and Adaptive Technologies exec Chad Cohen as CFO and COO.
