Satlyt, founded by a former Google and SpaceX product manager, raises $8M to run AI on satellites
Startup Satlyt has raised $8 million to develop software that enables AI processing directly on satellites. The company aims to create a horizontally integrated ecosystem for orbital computing, similar to how Android functions for mobile devices.
Why it matters
Moving AI processing to space reduces the need for expensive and slow data downlinks, potentially revolutionizing how orbital data is managed and utilized.
The way Rama Afullo tells it, he saw orbital data centers coming.
The Kenyan American engineer previously worked in Google’s cloud computing business before a brief stint at SpaceX’s Starlink communications network in 2024. His experiences convinced him that there was untapped potential for computers in space.
“When I was at SpaceX, I tried to pitch this internally. They said no. When I was at Google, I tried to pitch this internally. They said no,” he tells TechCrunch.
So he left SpaceX and co-founded Satlyt, a new company with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, and Nairobi, to build software for satellites that he hopes will let many satellites share the work of large computing jobs in space. The company has raised an $8 million seed round, Afullo exclusively told TechCrunch.
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