Led · Series C · Jan 2025

Loft Orbital provides mission-as-a-service, buying standard satellites from vendors like Airbus and LeoStella and configuring them with customer payloads rather than designing bespoke spacecraft. The company offers “virtual missions” that let customers deploy software apps onto Loft satellites to leverage on-board sensors and compute, and it has launched YAM-6 dedicated to running AI in space. Loft says it has sold over 30 satellites and deployed over 25 customer missions across five satellites launched to date; customers include NASA, Microsoft, Anduril and BAE Systems. The company declined to disclose hard revenue figures but reported 100% revenue growth for two consecutive years and has logged over $500 million of bookings on only $160 million of capital raised prior to this Series C. Loft has raised a total of $330 million in its lifetime after the new round. It plans to use the new capital to scale from a handful of launches per year to 10+ annually, expand its virtual missions and AI business, and grow an ecosystem of AI application partners. Loft Orbital provides space‑infrastructure‑as‑a‑service, building and operating spacecraft that host customer payloads so customers do not need to design or operate their own satellites. The company has launched two spacecraft (YAMs) that currently carry multiple customer payloads and has more than 20 customers including NASA, DARPA, the U.S. Space Force and Honeywell. Loft says it speeds customers’ time to orbit by keeping satellites in inventory and integrating payloads rapidly, shortening deployment from years to months. The company currently has about 70 employees and plans to grow to roughly 160 by the end of 2022 as it scales operations. Loft operates from San Francisco and also has manufacturing and facilities in Denver, Colorado and Toulouse, France. As part of its scaling plans it intends to use the new capital to expand the team and business operations. Loft Orbital develops a constellation of small satellites purpose-built to carry a mix of customer payloads on shared satellite buses. Its model is to buy satellite buses from vendors, integrate customer payloads in-house, and sell space on Loft-owned-and-operated satellites for a fee. The company is integrating YAM-2 on a Blue Canyon Technologies bus and expects YAM-2 to launch mid-2020, with YAM-3 and YAM-4 slated for 2020 and 2021. YAM-2 will carry five payloads, including an IoT telecom for Eutelsat, a methane sensor for Orbital Sidekick, a positioning payload for Fugro, an imager for the UAE government, and a blockchain payload for SpaceChain. Loft Orbital plans to place a batch order of 10–20 satellite platforms by April and has an established partner network that includes LeoStella, Maxar, OHB/LuxSpace, Satrec Initiative and Blue Canyon. The 30-person San Francisco startup raised $13M in this Series A, bringing total funding to $20M in equity and non-dilutive capital. YAM-3 is reported as 85% booked, and YAM-4 is reserved by a Fortune 100 company on behalf of a national space agency. Loft Orbital leases space on satellites and provides access for commercial, academic, and government organizations to collect Earth data. Its services support applications including environmental monitoring, water resources management, disaster assessment, and global security. The company is co-founded by Antoine de Chassy (CEO), Pierre-Damien Vaujour and Alex Greenberg. Loft Orbital is based in San Francisco, CA. The firm intends to use new funding to expand its global presence and to further build out its software products. The company secured $3.2M in seed funding to support these plans.

Participated · Series D · Dec 2024

Headquartered in San Jose, CA, Ayar Labs builds co-packaged optics that move data between chips with light instead of copper, reducing power consumption while boosting bandwidth for AI infrastructure. Its flagship TeraPHY optical engine is manufactured in concert with leading semiconductor partners and is designed to slot directly into existing accelerator and switch designs. By replacing traditional electrical I/O with optical links, the technology delivers significant performance gains and cost savings in power-constrained environments. Following its latest financing, the company plans to ramp production and testing capacity, open and staff a new office in Hsinchu, Taiwan, and deepen ecosystem partnerships to speed customer deployments. Ayar Labs’ CPO solution is already qualified for industry-standard fab, manufacturing, and packaging flows, positioning it for broad adoption. The company has raised a cumulative $870 million to date, providing substantial capital to execute its global expansion and commercialization roadmap.