Disney child star-turned-CEO raises $100 million for California space-antenna firm
By Ed Ludlow, Bloomberg
Northwood, a maker of critical ground infrastructure for space satellites, raised $100 million in a new funding round led jointly by Washington Harbour Partners and Andreessen Horowitz.
The money will be used to help Northwood expand manufacturing and production, supporting space missions that need to happen on tight timelines, the startup said Tuesday. The company declined to give its valuation.
Northwood, based in southern California, makes phased array antennas, mobile ground infrastructure that increases satellites’ connectivity to Earth. While there’s been a massive build-out of satellites for telecommunications, defense and climate monitoring, the equipment for controlling and communicating with them is aging and becoming obsolete. Northwood was co-founded and is led by Chief Executive Officer Bridgit Mendler. She is a former Disney Channel actress and platinum singer-song writer.
“Northwood provides the only viable approach capable of scaling ground station capacity to match expected satellite proliferation with the pace and security required,” Mina Faltas, founder and CEO at Washington Harbour Partners, said in an email.
The latest round comes less than a year after Northwood raised $30 million in funding also co-led by Andreessen Horowitz. Additionally, the startup has secured a $49.8 million contract from the US Space Force in support of launches as well as recovering lost or tumbling satellites.
“At this point there has been a three-month turnaround time from kickoff of that contract to actually delivering links, live, in the field,” Mendler said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Tuesday.
Northwood, founded in 2022, isn’t the only company focusing on ground infrastructure. BlueHalo, for example, has a $1.4 billion deal with the US Space Force to upgrade decades-old gear with their own defense-focused, steerable, phased array antennas.
Mendler said Northwood has spoken with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and other private space industry players about supporting their satellite networks.
“We have seen significant interest from commercial as well as government use cases,” Mendler said. “The ambition and challenge for space continues to grow.”
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