AscendArc emerged from stealth this morning with $4M in funding to develop small GEO communication satellites.
The company, founded by ex-Starlink engineer Chris McLain, raised $505,000 in a pre-seed round and $3.45M in seed funding. Investors include Seraphim Space, Everywhere Ventures, Portland Seed Fund, Thermo, and Hunter Communications.
When they go low, we go high: The Portland, OR-based startup is bucking the LEO trend, believing low-cost and high-bandwidth small GEO satellites could offer superior cost-efficiency.
- GEO satellites have historically been exceptionally large (often 5,000 kg+) and costly to develop, while LEO connectivity requires massive constellations that spend most of their time unused over oceans.
- Ascend believes the sweet spot is in smaller (sub-1,000 kg) GEO satellites that can provide continuous coverage over a specific region—albeit at slower connectivity speeds than LEO.
More $$$: The company also nabbed a $1.8M Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Air Force contract to refine its tech for military frequency bands, encryption, and anti-jamming capabilities.
“Their innovative approach holds the potential not only to revolutionize commercial satellite communications—providing even lower cost satellites for the commercial market—but also to provide crucial solutions for countries’ national security,” said Seraphim investor Lewis Jones.
Small GEO wins: Investors have recently turned their attention to the small GEO satcom sector, betting that low-cost manufacturing and solid connectivity speeds can offer attractive economics. Astranis, a micro GEO satellite manufacturer, secured a $200M Series D in June, the largest space raise of 2024 for a US company.
