The startup watch · 11 emerging companies
Starcloud
Data-centre satellites flying NVIDIA H100-class GPUs to run AI training and inference in orbit.
Series A · extended by $250m at a $2.3bn post-money valuation, August 2026; $450m raised in total
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Backers: Manhattan West (led the extension), Benchmark, EQT Ventures, NVIDIA, Cisco Investments, NFX, Y Combinator
Traction: Starcloud-1 trained a small language model in orbit in December 2025, the first LLM training in space.
Starcloud on the $250m extension · Starcloud on the $170m Series A · NVIDIA on Starcloud-1
Turion Space
Autonomous Droid satellites for space domain awareness, debris tracking and satellite servicing.
Series B · $75m+, April 2026
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Backers: Veteran Ventures, Washington Harbour, Y Combinator
Traction: Selected for a US Space Force small-satellite procurement programme spanning twelve firms, May 2025.
NewOrbit
Satellites with in-house propulsion built to hold very low Earth orbit, 200 to 300km, for years at a time.
Series A · $18.5m, June 2026
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Backers: Voyager Ventures, Atlantic VC, Lifeline Ventures
Traction: The oversubscribed round funds the NEO Production Complex, opening in 2027, with a first commercial satellite launch targeted for 2028.
Reditus Space
Reusable re-entry vehicles that return manufacturing payloads from orbit by splashdown.
Seed stage · the company publishes no round total
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Backers: not stated by the company
Traction: ENOS-1 is due to fly in autumn 2026, on the company's own timeline.
Cascade Space
A commercial deep-space ground-station network, built against NASA's oversubscribed Deep Space Network.
Seed · $5.9m, July 2025
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Backers: Y Combinator and fourteen others
Traction: The company says NASA's Deep Space Network is oversubscribed and unavailable to commercial missions, and puts its own new capacity at 2027.
Dispatch
Refurbishable re-entry vehicles for returning orbital manufacturing output such as semiconductors.
Y Combinator Spring 2026 · funding undisclosed
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Backers: Y Combinator
Traction: Says it has validated full-scale heat shields in the Mojave using rocket exhaust to simulate re-entry, rated above Mach 20; first flights of its Spark-1 vehicle begin in mid-2027.
Wardstone
A modular interceptor platform for air and missile defence; its first product, Hailstorm, deploys high-speed clouds of buckshot to destroy hypersonic missiles kinetically, with space-based interceptors to follow.
Y Combinator, 2025 batch · funding undisclosed
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Backers: Y Combinator
Traction: Its YC profile describes a prototype demo: an automated infrared-tracking, air-cannon intercept system that destroyed three test missiles at 150+ mph, run during the batch. That is the cannon prototype, not the Hailstorm buckshot product.
Instinct Space
Lunar landers designed to fly as standard rideshare payloads rather than dedicated missions.
Y Combinator Winter 2025 · funding undisclosed
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Backers: Y Combinator
Traction: The company's own specification is a minimum of 20kg delivered to the lunar surface, operating for a full lunar day, launched as a rideshare to any orbit.
GRU Space
Inflatable lunar habitats and regolith-brick construction, marketed as a future lunar hotel.
Y Combinator Winter 2026 · funding undisclosed
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Backers: Y Combinator
Traction: Reservations are open by application only, with pricing and participation structures discussed privately during qualification; the company's published timeline runs from a 2027 private auction to a first lunar mission in 2029.
Exosat
Communication satellites built free of US export-controlled parts, pitched at regional operators.
Y Combinator Summer 2026 · funding undisclosed
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Backers: Y Combinator
Traction: States over $400m in operator letters of intent and an 11,000-satellite ITU filing; company figures, not independently confirmed.
AxionOrbital
Foundation models converting radar satellite data into optical-style imagery in real time.
Y Combinator Winter 2026 · funding undisclosed
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Backers: Y Combinator
Traction: Published performance figures are the company's own; no independent validation yet.
