Northwood Space tests phased array antenna in October 2024. Photo: Northwood

Satellite ground technology startup Northwood Space has raised $30 million in a Series A funding round led by Alpine Space Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). 

Also Capital, Founders Fund, and StepStone Group joined as major investors and the round also included participation from BoxGroup, Humba Ventures, Balerion Space Ventures, Banter Capital, Long Journey, Aabid Razvi, Evan Loomis, and Adrian Aoun.

Northwood Space is led by CEO Bridgit Mendler, former Disney Channel actress. The company came out of stealth mode in February of 2024 with a $6.3 million seed round. 

The company is focused on disrupting satellite ground systems that receive data from satellites. It is designing in-house antenna hardware and software to build a shared ground network the company claims can scale to up to 100 gbps backhaul. Last year, Northwood tested a prototype of its phased array ground station in a live test with Planet Labs. 

Northwood plans to use the funding to expand into a 35,000 square foot manufacturing facility and deploy the first operational version of its ground network with plans for sites on 6 continents by the end of 2026.

“We’re building a global ground network — engineered to scale as fast as the missions it supports. We have our sights set on building the largest shared network in throughput and link capacity,” Mendler said in a post announcing the funding round.