Satlyt raises $8 million seed round to expand AI software for satellites

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Satlyt $8M AI satellite software

Highlights

Satlyt raised an $8 million seed round led by Non Sibi Ventures to expand AI software enabling edge computing and task sharing across multiple satellites.
Satlyt's software reduced the size of satellite error transmissions by more than 60% in a Momentus mission with Google DeepMind's Gemma, potentially saving hundreds of thousands of dollars per satellite annually.
The latest deployment launches on a SpaceX rocket with a TakeMe2Space satellite, supporting missions for NASA, Stellerian, and Google’s Project Suncatcher, while aiming for installation on 20% of satellites by decade's end.

Funding and in-orbit software rollout

As first reported by TechCrunch, Satlyt has raised an $8 million seed round to develop software that runs AI models on satellites and helps multiple spacecraft share computing tasks in orbit.

The company is co-founded by Rama Afullo, a former product manager at Google and SpaceX, and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and Nairobi. Afullo says his experience in Google cloud computing and at SpaceX's Starlink business convinced him there is underused potential for computers in space.

Satlyt is not building its own spacecraft. Instead, it is developing software designed to work across satellites from different companies, an approach Afullo compares to an open ecosystem rather than a vertically integrated model. The software is set to launch Thursday on a SpaceX rocket alongside the first prototype for Google's Project Suncatcher space data center effort.

Satlyt has already flown its software on two demonstration missions. Earlier this year, the company deployed Google DeepMind's Gemma AI model on a spacecraft operated by Momentus, reducing the size of a transmission about onboard software errors by more than 60%, which Afullo says can save hundreds of thousands of dollars per satellite each year.

Satellite operations and market opportunity

This week's mission places Satlyt's software on a spacecraft built by Indian startup TakeMe2Space. The mission includes work for NASA, which is paying to test protocols for cloud computing in space, for Stellerian, which wants to test image-processing workloads for space surveillance, and for TakeMe2Space itself as it demonstrates that the satellite can host third-party software.

The company is initially targeting operational efficiencies for spacecraft, which often rely on ground-based flight controllers to address problems. Because downlinking data to Earth is expensive and can be slow, Satlyt argues that onboard AI can lower costs by resolving anomalies and processing sensor data directly in orbit.

Its seed round was led by Houston-based Non Sibi Ventures. Partner Bernard Harris, a former NASA astronaut, helped shape the firm's investment view, while partner Kent Lucas says the business case does not depend on the most ambitious vision of orbital data centers and can instead grow with the number of satellites being launched.

Satlyt's next project is to show it can create a shared computing system across two different satellites, an effort it expects to attempt next year. Afullo says his goal is for the company's software to be live on 20% of satellites by the end of the decade, as more spacecraft builders begin adding GPUs and other advanced processors to their systems.

Our earlier article on SpaceX Super Intelligence’s AI subscription bundle explained how the company combined X Premium, Grok, and Cursor into a single tiered offering ranging from a free plan to $200 per month. We noted that the package is positioned to drive subscriber growth by expanding AI access and usage caps across higher-priced tiers, while giving existing users a clearer upgrade path.

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