EON wants to move the data superhighway from ocean fiber to space lasers
Startup Endeavor Optical Networks (EON) has raised $10.75 million to develop a satellite-based laser communication network. The company aims to provide high-speed data transmission between continents as an alternative to traditional undersea fiber-optic cables.
Why it matters
This technology could significantly increase global data throughput and provide a more resilient infrastructure for the internet's backbone.
As hyperscalers build out data centers around the world, they need to move the bits back and forth, and that often relies on a somewhat brittle network of undersea fiberoptic cables crisscrossing the oceans.
Those cables are tricky to access and repair , much less install. But alternatives aren’t easy to find: Radio transmissions don’t have the bandwidth, which rules out most wireless approaches on the ground or in orbit. But now, maybe lasers could do the job.
Endeavor Optical Networks , a start-up founded in May and emerging from stealth today with $10.75 million in seed funding from General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz, is betting on that plan. The co-founders, CEO Charlie Horowitz and CTO Tyler Presser, aim to launch a network of laser-equipped spacecraft to link data centers from orbit.
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