San Francisco startup Aethero raised $8.4M in seed funding to support the development of high-powered computing in space, including two orbital demonstrations, CEO Ed Ge told Payload exclusively.
Kindred Ventures partner Steve Jang led the round, which included participation from Neo, Giant Step Capital, O’Shaughnessy Ventures and Alumni Ventures. The now-closed round includes $1.7M in pre-seed funding from 2024.
Get the edge: Founded in 2023 by Ge and CTO Amit Pinnamaneni, Aethero develops hardware and software for next-generation chips to function in orbit. The tech can help enable missions including processing data in orbit, running deep learning models, and increasing autonomy for spacecraft.
Aethero’s first mission in 2024 tested and updated their prototype computer in orbit. “We actually learned quite a bit about bit flips,” Ge said, referring to space radiation’s ability to mess up computer memory. Now, the company is adding more radiation shielding to its computers, improving onboard error scrubbing and fault mitigation, and refining its thermal systems.
Moat check: Aethero buys its chips and builds custom computers around them. Its value-add, however, is combining that hardware with proprietary software that allows it to easily operate programs—including deep learning models—without extensive modification for space, and the ability to expand its capabilities to take on other work, including avionics and comms.
“When you buy the iPhone, you don’t want to build iOS yourself,” Ge said. “You want to have iOS preloaded on it with an app store. We are building that iOS with the iPhone for you, and a lot of in-space computer companies sell you the iPhone and you build iOS.”
Fly again: Aethero expects to fly its next demo mission in February 2026, with an upgraded computer featuring an NVidia Super Orin NX Som chip. A third mission is expected to fly on an ESPA-class spacecraft, with the schedule for that flight yet to be determined.
Finding traction: Aethero is auditioning its products for a number of potential customers, including NASA, to integrate into their space vehicles. Its initial computer offering includes flexible over-the-air software updates and expansion ecosystem that allows it to take on the duties of other satellite components, like software-defined radios.
Jang, whose investments often focus on the computer infrastructure underlying autonomous transport and logistics, told Payload he is excited about the potential of creating a new market for distributed processing in space. He said the primary interest in the tech came from—say it with me—national security buyers.
“Like DARPA and the formation of the internet, I think that you’ll see a lot of compute and logistics and robotics be spurred on and essentially accelerated through defense,” Jang said. “Then it’ll hit telecom [and] hedge funds for investment purposes, and weather and climate and so many different use cases.”
Killer apps: Ge expects the initial deployment of processing power in orbit to support in-space applications, not to begin replacing the terrestrial cloud.
“I do eventually think that by the end of this century we will have more compute in space than on the ground,” Ge said. “I just am not confident it will happen within the next 20 years, like everyone’s expecting.”
