Despite some recent setbacks that include explosions, crashes and bankruptcy, the commercial space industry is expected to continue growing — and there are several space tech companies that call the Bay Area home.
There are more than five dozen private aerospace companies around the world that have raised venture capital funding over the past couple of years, according to Crunchbase.
Among them, Elon Musk's SpaceX is the top funded with more than $8.6 billion in equity funding — its total funding jumps to $9.8 billion when accounting for nonequity funding like grants and private equity investments. The company is based in Hawthorne near Los Angeles.
The single largest equity round, though, went to Sierra Space, a Colorado-based subsidiary of Sierra Nevada Corp. Sierra Space raised a whopping $1.4 billion Series A round in 2021 to fuel its goal of launching a private space station, Reuters reported last year.
Venture capital firms poured more than $6 billion annually into global space technology startups for two consecutive years in 2021 and 2022, record amounts that exceeded the $5.4 billion invested in 2020 and $2.4 billion in 2019, according to PitchBook.
It might be too early to tell how 2023 will stack up, but space-related companies don't appear on track to set another record funding year. In the first three months of the year, they collectively raised $480 million, according to Crunchbase.
The industry is facing other recent challenges.
On April 4, Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit filed for bankruptcy and laid off most of its employees after failing to secure additional funding.
And a SpaceX Starship rocket exploded on April 20 just minutes after launching in Texas because its booster failed to separate. SpaceX considered the test launch a success despite the explosion. Eventually, the rocket ship is expected to carry both people and cargo, though it was carrying neither during the test.
Five days later, a Japanese startup called ispace lost contact with a lunar lander that was en route to the moon and likely crashed after running out of fuel, Reuters reported.
Despite these challenges, though, there's potentially a lot of money to be made in outer space.
Globally, the space-related economy was worth $469 billion in 2021, according to research from the Bank of America Institute, and is expected to grow to more than $1 trillion by 2030. Nearly 80% of all space-related activity in 2021 came from commercial products and services globally, with the remainder from government-funded activity.
Satellites and related products and services account for around 88% of all space industry revenue, according to the Bank of America report. And that's where Bay Area space technology startups appear to be concentrating their efforts.
In April, two Bay Area startups working on satellite-based technology and services were selected for a space accelerator program run by Amazon Web Services.
Here are nine space technology startups based in the Bay Area that are developing satellite-related software, hardware and services. Funding and other details were compiled from Crunchbase, Pitchbook and news reports.
Array Labs (Palo Alto) — Founded by CEO Andrew Peterson and Isaac Robledo in 2021. The company is using imaging software from satellites to create 3D models of the earth and has raised $5 million through a seed round. Array Labs was also one of Bay Area Inno's 2023 Startups to Watch.
Astranis Space Technologies Corp. (San Francisco) — Founded by CEO John Gedmark, CTO Ryan McLinko and Gregory Williams in 2015. The company develops geostationary satellites, which orbit Earth from a particular point that appears stationary, for defense and telecommunications industries. It raised $200 million earlier this year, bringing its total funding to nearly $600 million.
Capella Space (San Francisco) — Founded by CEO Payam Banazadeh in 2016. The company is also developing high-resolution satellites that can operate in low visibility conditions and has raised around $250 million, including two separate rounds over the past year.
Kawa Space (San Francisco and India) — Founded by CEO Krishna Nair and Bala Menon in 2018. The company develops analytics software based on Earth observation satellites.
LeoLabs (Menlo Park) — Founded by CEO Daniel Ceperley, CTO Edward Lu, John Buonocore and former co-CEO Michael Nicolls in 2016. The company uses a network of radars based on Earth to monitor objects in space including satellites and debris that are in low-Earth orbit. LeoLabs has raised more than $100 million, including a $65 million Series B in 2021, according to TechCrunch.
Loft Orbital Solutions (San Francisco) — Founded in 2017 by CEO Pierre-Damien Vaujour, COO Alexander Greenberg and president Antoine de Chassy. The company repurposes satellites to launch with payloads from customers, or what the company describes as a "space carpool," and manages the fleet after they've launched. Loft Orbital raised more than $100 million in a 2021 Series B round, bringing its total funding to more than $156 million.
Orbital Sidekick (San Francisco) — Founded by CEO Dan Katz and COO Tushar Prabhakar in 2016. They're developing hyperspectral satellites for Earth observation. They raised a $10 million "strategic investment" round in January, bringing its total funding to at least $38 million.
Pixxel Space Technologies (Palo Alto) — Founded by CEO Awais Ahmed and CTO Kshitij Khandelwal in 2019. Pixxel also designs hyperspectral satellites for a variety of Earth observation use cases. The company raised a $25 million Series A round in 2022 bringing its total funding to more than $30 million.
Xona Space Systems (Burlingame) — Founded in 2019 by CEO Brian Manning, CTO Tyler Reid and others. It utilizes low-orbit satellites to provide precise location-based data for businesses operating in industries like autonomous mobility and augmented reality.
