Satlyt raises $8 million to run AI software on satellites

Satlyt, a startup co-founded by former Google and SpaceX product manager Rama Afullo, has raised an $8 million seed round to develop software that runs AI models on satellites. Afullo told TechCrunch about the funding.

The company, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and Nairobi, aims to let satellites from different companies share computing work. Afullo likened the approach to Android: an open software ecosystem that can run across multiple spacecraft, rather than a single company’s integrated system. Satlyt does not plan to build its own satellites.

Satlyt has flown its software on two demonstration missions. Earlier this year, it deployed Google DeepMind’s Gemma model on a spacecraft operated by Momentus. The model reduced the size of a transmission about onboard software errors by more than 60%. Afullo said the efficiency could save hundreds of thousands of dollars per satellite each year.

This week, Satlyt’s software is scheduled to fly on a spacecraft built by Indian startup TakeMe2Space, aboard a SpaceX rocket. The mission includes NASA, testing cloud-computing protocols; Stellerian, testing image-processing workloads; and TakeMe2Space, demonstrating that the satellite can host other companies’ software.

Satlyt’s next project is to demonstrate a shared computing system spanning two satellites, which it expects to attempt next year. Afullo said he hopes the software will be operating on 20% of satellites by the end of the decade. That target is his stated ambition, not a confirmed deployment forecast.