A former Google and SpaceX engineer raised 8 million dollars to integrate AI into satellites

The startup Satlyt raised a seed round of US$ 8 million to develop software capable of running artificial intelligence models directly onboard satellites. The company was founded by Kenyan-American engineer Rama Afullo, who previously worked at Google and SpaceX, and this week will have its first commercial mission through a launch by Elon Musk's space company.

The round was led by Non Sibi Ventures, a Houston-based firm that decided to bet on a still nascent market: data processing directly in orbit. “We don’t need data centers in space for Rama to do very well,” explained Kent Lucas, a partner at the fund, in a conversation with TechCrunch.

Process data before sending it to Earth

Satlyt's proposal aims to introduce greater computing capacity within the satellites themselves. “It could simply be driven by the number of satellites launched,” Lucas stated while explaining why Non Sibi Ventures believes the business can grow even without the need for more ambitious projects for space data centers.

The goal is for satellites to be able to run artificial intelligence models directly in orbit, rather than relying solely on sending information to ground facilities for processing. The company seeks to develop the necessary software to leverage the computers installed onboard the new generations of satellites.

One of the drivers of the investment was Bernard Harris, a partner at Non Sibi Ventures and former NASA astronaut. His experience in the space sector helped the fund evaluate an idea that is still in an early stage of commercial development.

An idea rejected at Google and SpaceX

Before creating Satlyt, Afullo worked in the cloud computing area at Google and later went to Starlink, SpaceX's satellite network, during 2024. There, he became convinced that there was a business opportunity around incorporating more powerful computers within satellites.

“When I was at SpaceX, I tried to push this internally. When I was at Google, I tried the same. I was told no,” Afullo recounted about the origin of his project.

The rejection ultimately served as a trigger to develop the idea outside both companies. Afullo left SpaceX and decided to create his own company to build a platform specifically focused on satellite computing.

The bet stems from a broader trend within the space industry: the strong growth of constellations and the number of satellites launched into orbit. “It could simply be driven by the number of satellites launched,” Lucas insisted while explaining why the fund believes there is enough market to sustain Satlyt's growth.

From a startup to its first commercial mission

The company currently has offices in Sunnyvale, California, and Nairobi, Kenya, a structure that also reflects the personal journey of its founder. After completing the funding round, Satlyt is now preparing for a decisive moment: testing its technology in a real commercial mission.

The launch will take place this week aboard a SpaceX rocket, the same company where Afullo worked before starting his venture. The mission will allow them to begin verifying how their software works when artificial intelligence models must operate directly from a satellite.

For investors, the potential does not depend on imagining a completely new infrastructure in space. “We don’t need data centers in space,” Lucas summarized.

The story of Satlyt was born precisely from trying to bring that idea to two of the largest tech companies in the world and receiving the same response. “I was told no,” Afullo recalled. Now, with US$ 8 million in funding and its first commercial mission about to launch, he will seek to demonstrate that artificial intelligence processing within satellites can become a standalone business.