Satlyt Inc., a startup that develops artificial intelligence software for satellites, has raised $8 million in funding.
TechCrunch reported today announced that the seed round was led by early-stage fund Non Sibi Ventures.
Satlyt was founded in 2024 by Managing Director Rama Afullo (pictured, second from left). He was previously a product manager at SpaceX Corp.’s Starlink business. Afullo previously worked as a cloud architect at Google LLC, which launched its first AI-powered satellite into orbit last week.
Most satellites have a relatively limited amount of onboard computer equipment. Therefore, they usually do not process the data they collect locally, but send it to ground-based servers. The process of transmitting information to Earth presents numerous technical challenges.
The first hurdle is that the average satellite only flies within range of its operator’s terrestrial antenna for a few minutes per day. This limits the amount of data that can be sent to Earth. In addition, the data loses some accuracy on the way to the antenna.
Satly’s eponymous AI platform is designed to address these challenges. It allows satellites that have graphics processors to internally process some of the data they collect. This reduces the amount of information they need to send to Earth, easing associated networking challenges.
The first satellite with the Satlyt platform was launched into low Earth orbit in March. The system was developed by a venture capital-backed startup called Momentus Inc. It uses Satlyt’s software to run Google’s open source Gemma 3 1B language model.
The companies evaluated the system by simulating a series of common errors in the satellite software. Satlyt’s platform used Gemini to collect error logs, identify the root cause, and propose a solution. The platform reduced the amount of telemetry that had to be beamed to Earth for analysis by more than 64%.
Satlyt was in April Work to upgrade its stack to a newer, more powerful AI model called Gemma 4 E2B. The company is also exploring ways to reduce the hardware footprint of AI models. Satly aims to reduce the memory consumption of the Gemma 4 E2B by more than 90%.
Another Satlyt-powered satellite is scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX rocket later today. NASA will use the company’s software to test new orbital computing methods. Stellerian Inc., a space observation startup, plans to run image processing algorithms onboard the system.
Satlyt is reportedly working on a new software tool that will allow workloads to be distributed across multiple satellites. The first system with this technology is scheduled to launch into orbit next year.
Photo: Satlyt
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