Northwood Founders
Northwood Space raised $100 million in Series B funding co-led by Washington Harbour Partners and Andreessen Horowitz to scale satellite ground infrastructure production, with participation from Alpine Space Ventures, Founders Fund, StepStone, Balerion Space Ventures, Fulcrum, Pax, and 137 Ventures. The El Segundo, California startup founded in 2023 by CEO Bridgit Mendler, CTO Griffin Cleverly, and Shaurya Luthra simultaneously announced a $49.8 million contract with US Space Force to upgrade the Satellite Control Network providing tracking, telemetry, and command for Department of Defense satellites including GPS constellation management.
Phil Scully, co-founder and general partner at Balerion Space Ventures, stated that as launch costs collapse, bottlenecks shift to Earth-based infrastructure. Ground systems represent the critical foundation every orbital mission depends on, and companies building that enabling layer will define the space economy for decades. Private capital is accelerating space commercialization at unprecedented pace, with orbital activity accelerating as satellite constellations scale and ground systems emerging as defining limitations.
Mendler emphasized that appetite for space has never been stronger but ground infrastructure remains exceptionally difficult with no single entity accountable for fixing systemic problems. Northwood operates as vertically integrated end-to-end ground infrastructure partner supporting everything from concept to deployment to live data delivery. By owning the full ground stack including hardware manufacturing, software development, and network operations, the company collapses timelines from years to months and months to days for boundary-pushing space missions.
The company designs and mass-produces phased-array ground stations branded as "Portals" that communicate with satellites in low Earth orbit. These systems deploy faster and at lower cost than traditional ground infrastructure which often becomes chokepoints as satellite constellations multiply. Current Portal sites handle eight simultaneous satellite links, but by the end of 2027 Cleverly expects next-generation ground stations to handle 10 to 12 links with overall network capacity supporting hundreds of satellites.
Northwood demonstrated execution velocity by providing Space Force communication links within three months of receiving the contract, working with Program Executive Office for Battle Management Command Control Communications and Space Intelligence. The $49.8 million Space Force contract addresses resource constraints limiting support for high-priority missions, upgrading Satellite Control Network that handles consequential government space missions including GPS satellite tracking and control.
The timing aligns with broader orbital dynamics where launch costs continue falling, satellites keep multiplying, and data volumes keep rising. Pressure lands squarely on Earth-based infrastructure where older ground systems struggle maintaining pace. GPS navigation, weather forecasting, disaster response, and defense communications all depend on quiet reliability of ground stations that rarely grab headlines but enable space industry value delivery.
Companies like SpaceX and Amazon with massive satellite internet networks build and operate proprietary ground stations, but capacity remains constrained for other players typically renting space from third-party providers without guaranteed availability. Northwood's expanded capacity proves most valuable for customers scaling from one or two satellites into dozens or larger constellations requiring dedicated ground infrastructure.
The Series B comes less than one year after Northwood raised $30 million Series A in 2025 to expand manufacturing capacity and deploy initial network sites across multiple continents. The new capital funds manufacturing scale-up as Northwood races meeting demand from commercial satellite operators and government customers working under tight mission timelines, positioning the company as supplier for both commercial constellations and national security missions requiring reliability.
