Astranis

Christian Keil

@pronounced_kyle

After 7 incredible years, I’m leaving Astranis. Hell of a run! I’m proud to have helped us scale up to: ‣ 500 people ‣ >$1B of in sales ‣ 5 satellites on orbit ‣ 150,000 sq ft of factory space And I am SO stoked to watch Astranis scale to 20+ satellites launching every year… there's truly nothing else like building a physical object for years, strapping it to a ROCKET, and blasting it into space. I'll remember those launches forever. (And the hotels in Cocoa Beach... because that's were we found out we were having our first baby, pregnancy test at the Marriott haha.) The thing I’ll remember most, though, is the team. So many people helped us build Astranis — from the execs, to the engineers who became team leads, to my Finance and External Relations teams, to our alumni: founders, filmmakers, Hill staffers, future congressmen, and more. I’ll announce what’s next for me soon… it's something totally different. (Not a startup!) But for now: Astranis rules. I’m so proud of the team, I sincerely believe Astranis will have a huge impact on the world, and I'm honored that @Gedmark trusted me and gave me a chance to help him build a company and team that I love.

Seth Bannon

@sethbannon

We led the Astranis pre-seed as their first VC investor. Every additional $50k check was a fight because the idea of a startup building small geo satellites was out there. But @Gedmark was relentless. Now @Astranis looks inevitable, with $450M more to scale. Ad astra!

Nicole DeTommaso 🪄

@nic_detommaso

The next $1B company will probably be founded by someone sitting in a SpaceX office right now. I tracked EVERY founder at the last 50 newly minted unicorns in the U.S. Then I mapped where they worked before they started. The results: Google → 7 unicorn founders SpaceX → 5 Apple → 3 Microsoft → 3 Amazon → 3 Tesla → 2 Uber → 2 Outside of where they previously worked, here are some other patterns I saw: SpaceX founders are not build SaaS (surprise). They build hypersonic aircraft (Hermeus), autonomous flight systems (Reliable Robotics Corporation), and satellite constellations (Astranis Space Technologies). Google founders are going wide. Analytics (Omni), mental health (Grow Therapy), cybersecurity (https://t.co/EXjznLd1Qx), AI sales (Rox). The crossover founders are the most interesting. Robert Rose worked at SpaceX, Tesla, AND Google, then built Reliable Robotics. Parag Agrawal was CEO of Twitter, now building Parallel Web Systems, an AI web infrastructure company. Couple more things: - 5 of these founders went through Y Combinator. - Several hit $1B in under 2 years. - Sequoia Capital backed 9 of the 50. Long story short - the unicorn founder pipeline isn't random. It's predictable if you're watching the right people at the right companies. Data: Harmonic. Get a demo → https://t.co/Erwe5M6K6L #HarmonicPartner #venturecapital

Emma Steuer 🧚🤖

@emmysteuer

Astranis builds compact, low-cost geostationary satellites that beam internet to underserved regions. Each one weighs roughly 400kg, a fraction of the multi-ton mass of traditional GEO satellites, yet delivers dedicated bandwidth to a single country or coverage area. By going small and flying high, they fill the gaps satellite mega-constellations leave behind

Space Investor

@SpaceInvestor_D

Astranis adds $450 million to meet surging demand for advanced high-orbit spacecraft Astranis today announced it has raised $450 million in new capital, bringing the company’s total raised to more than $1.2 billion as it scales to meet increased demand for its spacecraft designed for geostationary orbit (GEO) and other high orbits. "The world is more contested and volatile than it once was. Sovereign, secure communications infrastructure is more critical than ever," said John Gedmark, CEO and co-founder of Astranis. "We built Astranis to deliver satellites at speed and at scale. This capital accelerates our ability to meet demand from our commercial customer base around the world, and importantly we are now spooling up to support multiple US Government programs of record simultaneously.”

Atoms Not Bits

@AtomsNotBits

Daily Hard Tech Headlines: - Black Sea Technologies secured a $256M US Navy contract to develop the Sea-Based Petroleum Distribution System, a submersible maritime fuel distribution system for expeditionary military operations. - INTALUS, INC., the West Lafayette, Indiana startup, has secured an $11M seed round, according to SEMAFOR. The startup develops next-generation metals through the combination of metals and ceramics. - @Astranis, the satellite startup, has secured $450M in new funding, including a $300M Series E led by Snowpoint Ventures and Franklin Templeton. - @OrqaFPV, the European drone startup, has launched ORQA U.S. with By By Light Professional IT Services. The startup will have a 180K sq ft manufacturing facility in Florida to produce American drones. - The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands is looking at potentially developing 12 geothermal energy sites across the islands. - ThinKom Solutions, Inc., the Los Angeles startup, is partnering with the U.S. United States Space Force to deliver a containerized satellite system for rapid logistics. - ANELLO Photonics, the Bay Area startup developing technology for GPS-denied navigation, has secured a $25M Series B-2 round led by MESH. - @jesslionness has joined Andreessen Horowitz as a partner on their American Dynamism team. She was formerly a partner at Decibel Partners and a Forward Deployed Engineer at Palantir Technologies. - Scout Space, the Virginia startup, has raised an $18M Series A led by Washington Harbour Partners LP. The startup develops sensors and software for space awareness. - Worldbuild, the VC fund founded by @sumeet724, has raised $30M for its Worldbuild I fund. The VC fund has deployed capital into hard tech startups such as @AetherfluxUSA. - @Splash_Robotics has launched its advanced navigation module for the Typhoon drone boats. - @Hut8Corp, the compute infrastructure company, signed a 15-year, 352 MW AI data center lease valued at $9.8B, with expansion potential up to $25.1B. - Matthew L. Scullin has joined @ShieldCapVC, the national security VC firm. The former biotech founder will be based in Europe and focus on themes including physics and computing. - Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has successfully flown its XRQ-73, a hybrid-electric unmanned experimental aircraft. - @saildrone (pictured below) has begun deployments on the Great Lakes for use by the U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes District in maritime security and emergency response operations.

John Gedmark

Co-founder & CEO

Co-founded Astranis in 2015 after leading the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.