Satlyt secures $8 million to expand AI software for satellites

Satlyt, a space-tech startup with its African headquarters in Nairobi, has raised $8 million in seed funding to develop software that allows satellites to process data and run artificial intelligence applications in orbit.

The round was led by non sibi ventures, a Houston-headquartered early-stage venture capital firm. TLCOM, Antler, Slauson & Co., Launch Africa Ventures, Enza Capital, Askya Investment Partners, Demos, BAG Collective, Gaingels, Axian Investment and other investors also participated.

Satlyt said it will use the funding to expand its engineering and customer delivery teams. The company also plans to install its software on more spacecraft operated by other companies.

Using existing spacecraft hardware

Rather than building satellite computing hardware, Satlyt provides software designed to run on computers already installed inside spacecraft. The software can be uplinked, retrofitted or preloaded onto a satellite and is intended to work across different satellite designs.

Rama Afullo, Satlyt’s founder and chief executive officer, said the company’s approach would allow operators to make greater use of computing equipment already in orbit.

“Running applications on existing spacecraft gives operators a way to do more with the computing hardware they already have in orbit,” Afullo said in a statement. “Our job is to make those applications practical to deploy and operate.”

Satlyt says it already has software operating in orbit and has worked with NASA and Google. In one earlier deployment, Google’s Gemma artificial intelligence model ran on a satellite and analysed system logs, identifying software errors and stack traces without first sending the data to Earth.

The company is also working with the University of Houston through NASA’s Glenn Research Centre under NASA’s Small Business Technology Transfer programme. That work focuses on delay-tolerant networking technology.

Long-term orbital computing network

Satlyt’s longer-term objective is to connect computing resources across satellites and create virtual artificial intelligence data centres. The company says spacecraft operated by different organisations could eventually contribute computing capacity to a shared network.

“We don’t want satellites to be isolated computers collecting data and sending everything back to them,” Afullo said in an interview with TechCabal. “We want spacecraft to run AI, process data onboard, make decisions locally, and eventually coordinate a computer across spacecraft.”

He added that Satlyt is not currently trying to replace terrestrial data centres, describing the company’s immediate focus as edge computing for satellite systems.

Kent Lucas, managing partner at non sibi ventures, said Satlyt’s deployments on third-party spacecraft provide a foundation for a broader computing platform in space.

Satlyt was founded in 2024 by Afullo, who is described as a Kenyan-American entrepreneur. The company has signed memoranda of understanding with the Kenya Space Agency and Angola’s Gabinete de Gestão do Programa Espacial Nacional.

African demand for computing capacity

Africa has less than 1% of global data centre capacity, with 360 megawatts of active capacity. The Global System for Mobile Communications Association estimates that African countries will need to more than double their hosting capacity by 2030 to meet rising digital demand and support artificial intelligence training and deployment.

Satlyt generates revenue from installing its software on spacecraft, paid pilot projects with aerospace and defence contractors, and research and development programmes funded by space agencies, according to Afullo.

The company is exploring space-based computing alongside companies including Starcloud and Axiom Space. Its current funding is intended to support further engineering work, customer delivery and deployment across additional spacecraft.