Satlyt Raises $8M to Run AI on Satellites as Software Prepares for SpaceX Launch

Afullo, a Kenyan American engineer, previously worked in Google's cloud computing business before a brief stint at SpaceX's Starlink communications network in 2024. He said he tried to pitch orbital computing internally at both companies. "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 told TechCrunch. He left SpaceX and co-founded Satlyt.

The 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 a novel space-based business, according to TechCrunch. Non Sibi partner Kent Lucas said one reason for the investment was that Satlyt does not depend on a highest-octane vision of space data centers, which faces uncertain economics and a launch bottleneck. "We don't need data centers in space for Rama to be wildly successful, right?" Lucas told TechCrunch. "It can just be driven by the number of satellites going up."

Satlyt is not planning to build its own spacecraft, unlike SpaceX, Google, Starcloud, or Cowboy Space Company. Afullo's team is building software to operate AI models on satellites. He compared the approach to VMware and Snowflake, whose platforms let users run complex software without managing the underlying infrastructure. "The folks like SpaceX who are doing orbital data centers — if they are the iPhone, we'll build Android as a horizontally integrated, open ecosystem," he said. Satlyt wants to offer software that works across many companies' satellites.

Satlyt has already flown its software on two demonstration missions. Its initial focus is finding operational efficiencies for spacecraft, which typically depend on flight controllers on the ground to solve problems that arise. Sending data back to Earth, known as downlink, is expensive and often slow. 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 about onboard software errors by more than 60%, according to Afullo. He said that kind of efficiency can save hundreds of thousands of dollars per satellite each year.

This week's launch will put Satlyt's software to work onboard a spacecraft built by TakeMe2Space, an Indian startup that builds computing hardware for satellites. The mission involves three customers. NASA is paying the company to test protocols for cloud computing in space. Stellerian, a startup focused on space surveillance, or tracking objects in orbit, wants to test image processing workloads. TakeMe2Space itself wants to show the satellite can host other companies' software.

Few high-powered GPUs are in orbit right now, and the most likely near-term opportunity lies in the kinds of workloads Satlyt is already working on. The company's next project is to show it can create a shared computing system, a cloud, spanning two different satellites. It expects to attempt that next year. If successful, Satlyt says it will allow the company to build a true compute cloud in orbit as a third-party provider to spacecraft builders. "The way to think about it is that we turn your satellite into a revenue-generating managed service," Afullo said.

Afullo hopes Satlyt will 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 their satellites. "If you're putting up a satellite without putting up a GPU on it, at the very least, you're doing yourself a disservice, right?" he said.

Satlyt is among dozens of startups vetted by TechCrunch and appearing at Disrupt as part of its Battlefield competition this week in downtown San Francisco. The event kicks off Tuesday.