Quantum imaging startup Diffraqtion announced more than $5M in additional funding on Monday, more than doubling its pre-seed from when it first closed in January.
The investments from Lockheed Martin Ventures and Sumitomo Corporation’s Presidio Ventures brought the startup’s total funding to $10M+. Diffraqtion announced a $4.2M pre-seed round in January, which included participation from QDNL Participations, milemark•capital, Aether VC, and ADIN, plus a $1.5M DARPA SBIR Direct-to-Phase II contract.
Other new investors include SBI US Gateway Fund with Plug and Play, Collaborative Fund, and TekVentures.
Ready for my close-up: The MA-based company is building cameras for space using quantum imaging and AI to either spot faraway objects, or to see closer objects clearly with a much smaller lens. The aim is to cut both processing time and cost, using the tech to give exquisite capability for a fraction of the usual price.
“For as long as cameras have existed, seeing farther has meant building bigger optics,” said CEO and cofounder Johannes Galatsanos said in a statement. “Our cameras break that paradigm, delivering better mission capability at a fraction of the aperture, size, and cost.”
What’s new: Since the company emerged from stealth with its pre-seed round this year, it’s notched some milestones, including:
- Demoing its tech at a terrestrial observatory.
- Securing a SBIR Phase I award from NASA for tracking space debris.
- Winning NASA’s Space to Soil Challenge, in which companies designed small-sat missions using advanced computing to study the Earth. That came with a $100,000 prize.
What’s next: The latest funding will enable Diffraqtion to get flight heritage in orbit, as officials plan to launch a hosted payload on an unnamed spacecraft. To help the company enter this new phase, Peter Kazlas will join as head of engineering.
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NASA’s newest telescope faces a long trip and months of calibration, but the team hopes its first images arrive as a new year’s gift to the world.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched at 7:26 am ET on Sunday from KSC aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, starting its journey to Lagrange Point 2 and beginning a lengthy commissioning period.
The flagship mission will help astronomers explore dark matter, dark energy, and exoplanets while supporting a broad range of supplemental research. Roman’s field of view is at least 100 times larger than Hubble’s—enough to measure light from a billion galaxies over its lifetime.
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