Satlyt Secures $8M Seed Funding to Enhance AI Capabilities for Satellites

Satlyt has raised $8 million in a seed round led by Non Sibi Ventures, which includes partners Bernard Harris and Kent Lucas. Founded by Rama Afullo, a former product manager at Google and SpaceX, Satlyt focuses on developing software that enhances satellite operations. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and Nairobi, and aims to capture 20% of the satellite market by the end of the decade.

Earlier this year, Satlyt successfully deployed Google DeepMind’s Gemma AI model onboard a spacecraft, achieving a 60% reduction in the size of transmission regarding onboard software errors. This follows Afullo's previous attempts to pitch similar concepts at SpaceX and Google, which were not accepted.

In addition to its software initiatives, Satlyt plans to create a shared computing system spanning two satellites next year. The company is also collaborating with Momentus, which operated a spacecraft for deploying Satlyt's software, and is in discussions with NASA, which is funding testing protocols for cloud computing in space.

Afullo envisions Satlyt as a horizontally integrated ecosystem, akin to Android, in contrast to SpaceX's focus on orbital data centers, which he likens to the iPhone. He emphasizes the necessity of integrating GPUs into satellites, stating, "If you’re putting up a satellite without putting up a GPU on it, at the very least, you’re doing yourself a disservice."

This funding round positions Satlyt to advance its technology and operational capabilities in the growing satellite AI market.