Space is an increasingly crowded place thanks to the constant influx of new satellites and it’s only to get more cramped as the cost to get to orbit falls.
Those dynamics have brought attention to startup Northwood Space, which has spent the last few years developing more modern and efficient ground-based communications infrastructure. The startup capitalized on that interest in two ways this week.
The El Segundo, California-based company announced on Tuesday it has closed a $100 million Series B funding round, led by Washington D.C.-based firm Washington Harbour Partners (which has been on a run of space investments) and co-led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Northwood has also secured a $49.8 million contract with the United States Space Force to help upgrade what’s known as the “satellite control network,” which “handles a huge variety of consequential space missions for our government” including tracking and controlling GPS satellites, founder and CEO Bridgit Mendler said on a call with reporters.
The funding round and government contract are major milestones for the company, which is just a few years old and only closed its $30 million Series A less than a year ago.
But with so much interest in funding space tech, hard tech, and defense tech right now, Mendler said this was an opportunity for her company to grow responsibly and quickly.
“Yes, this is happening faster than we thought — you know, two fundraises in the same year and large sums of capital,” she said. But, she pointed out, “that’s really what we’re ready for from a production standpoint.”
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Mendler also said the fresh capital will help Northwood keep pace with growing demand, marking an “inflection point in the business.”
“We get customers coming to us all the time requiring a ground solution, wanting us to help think through a ground problem with them, and we don’t want there to be a resource constraint that blocks us from being able to support that mission,” she said. “And so the resources were very intentionally brought on at this point to support the missions that that are coming forward for us.”
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