Satlyt, Launched by an Ex-Google and SpaceX Product Manager, Lands $8M to Power AI Aboard Satellites

Satlyt, a satellite AI software company, has raised an $8 million seed round and will launch its software on a SpaceX rocket Thursday, alongside the first prototype for Google’s space data center effort, Project Suncatcher. The flight matters because it tests a narrower path to orbital computing: software that can operate AI models on satellites built by many different companies, rather than a single operator’s own spacecraft.

Background: From Google and SpaceX to Satlyt

Rama Afullo, a Kenyan American engineer, says the idea for Satlyt came from his work inside large technology infrastructure businesses. Before founding the company, he worked in Google’s cloud computing business and had a brief 2024 stint at SpaceX’s Starlink communications network. Those experiences convinced him there was untapped potential for computers in space.

His internal proposals did not win support. Afullo told TechCrunch that he pitched the concept at SpaceX and later at Google, and both companies said no. After leaving SpaceX, he co-founded Satlyt, which is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and Nairobi. The company is not building its own spacecraft. Instead, it is developing 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 told TechCrunch exclusively.

The timing has shifted since those early pitches. SpaceX has since gone all-in on orbital data centers, and Satlyt’s software is set to launch Thursday on a SpaceX rocket alongside the first prototype for Google’s Project Suncatcher.

Development: Demonstrations and Onboard Efficiency

Satlyt’s path has been software first. Afullo compares the company’s approach to VMWare and Snowflake, whose platforms let users run complex software without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. In his framing, companies that build vertical orbital data centers may resemble a closed iPhone-like system, while Satlyt wants an Android-like, horizontally integrated, open ecosystem that works across many companies’ satellites.

The company has already flown its software on two demonstration missions. The initial focus is finding operational efficiencies for spacecraft, which typically depend on flight controllers on the ground to solve any problems that arise. Sending data back to Earth, known as downlink, is expensive and often slow, so using AI to make decisions on the spacecraft can mean real savings, either when resolving anomalies or by processing sensor readings onboard instead of on the ground.

Earlier this year, Satlyt deployed Google DeepMind’s Gemma AI model onboard a spacecraft operated by Momentus. The model cut the size of a transmission concerning onboard software errors by more than 60%, the kind of efficiency Afullo says can save hundreds of thousands of dollars per satellite each year.

Latest Progress: A Thursday Launch With Three Customers

This week’s launch moves Satlyt from demonstrations toward customer workloads. The software will run onboard a spacecraft built by TakeMe2Space, an Indian startup that builds computing hardware for satellites. The mission involves three customers: NASA, which is paying the company to test protocols for cloud computing in space; Stellerian, a startup focused on space surveillance and tracking objects in orbit, which wants to test image processing workloads; and TakeMe2Space itself, to show the satellite can host other companies’ software.

That distinction matters. Unlike SpaceX, Google, or startups like Starcloud and Cowboy Space Company, Satlyt is not planning to build its own spacecraft. It is positioning itself as a third-party software layer that can run on satellites from different builders. Right now, few high-powered GPUs, or graphics processing units often used for AI, are in orbit. For now, the most likely opportunity lies in the kinds of workloads Satlyt is already working on.

Next Phase: Shared Computing Across Satellites

Satlyt’s next project is to show that it can create a shared computing system, a cloud spanning two different satellites. The company expects to attempt that next year. If successful, it will allow the company to build a true compute cloud in orbit as a third-party provider to spacecraft builders. The practical pitch is to turn a satellite into a managed, revenue-generating service rather than a single-purpose asset.

Satlyt’s seed round was led by Houston-based Non Sibi Ventures. Partner Bernard Harris, who served as a NASA astronaut for more than 20 years, helped ground the firm’s conviction in the novel, space-based business. One reason the firm invested is that Satlyt does not depend on the highest-octane vision of space data centers, which faces uncertain economics and a launch bottleneck. Non Sibi partner Kent Lucas told TechCrunch that success can be driven by the number of satellites going up.

Afullo’s hope is to be live on 20% of satellites by the end of the decade, when he expects virtually every spacecraft builder to be putting GPUs and similar advanced processors in its satellites. He argues that launching a satellite without a GPU is, at minimum, doing the operator a disservice.

The Thursday launch is the near-term test. Satlyt is among dozens of other startups vetted by TechCrunch and appearing at Disrupt as part of the broader Battlefield competition happening October 13-15 in downtown San Francisco.

Meta description: Satlyt raises an $8 million seed round and launches AI software on a SpaceX rocket Thursday to test satellite computing with NASA, Stellerian, and TakeMe2Space

Tags: Satlyt, satellite AI, orbital computing, SpaceX launch, Project Suncatcher

Featured image: Abstract technology style network of satellites and compute nodes, no real people, no company logos, no text