Northwood Space closed a $30M Series A that will help the startup build its ground station enterprise.
Alpine Space Ventures and a16z led the round, which also included participation from Also Capital, Founders Fund, and Stepstone. The money will enable the startup to expand its factory and establish the first operational network of its ground sites.
“The space segment is no longer an accessory—it is core infrastructure. It powers everything from GPS and remote asset monitoring to missile warning and global communications,” CEO and cofounder Bridgit Mendler posted on X. “Yet today’s ground infrastructure can’t keep up. At Northwood we are vertically integrating to build a reliable global ground network at scale.”
Origin story: While much of the space industry is looking up, Northwood, which was founded in 2023, is focused on the terrestrial tech that allows space assets to work. The El Segundo, CA-based startup is working to build “a data highway between Earth and space,” the company shared on X in February 2024, when it emerged from stealth with a $6.3M seed round.
The company aims to do that by becoming a vertically integrated ground station manufacturer, ensuring that the ground stations on Earth that play a critical role in pulling data down from orbit are as high-tech and up-to-date as the assets in space with which they communicate.
What’s next: The new factory will allow Northwood to stand up two ground sites per month at a much lower price point than traditional efforts, according to Mendler. The goal is to have sites covering six continents by the end of next year.
