The financing was led by Washington Harbour Partners and co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, with support from Alpine Space Ventures, Founders Fund and others.

At the same time, the company has clinched a nearly $50 million contract with the United States Space Force to help modernise the Satellite Control Network (SCN), the facilities that track, command and maintain defence and civil satellites from launch into orbit.

What makes Northwood different? Traditional satellite ground stations rely on large, mechanically pointed dishes that can be slow to build and limited in capability.

Northwood’s approach uses electronically steered, multi-beam phased-array systems that can contact multiple satellites across low, medium and geostationary orbits without moving parts, and can be deployed in a matter of hours rather than months.

The CEO is former Disney star Bridgit Mendler, best known to many as a Disney Channel actress from shows including Good Luck Charlie and Wizards of Waverly Place before reinventing herself in the tech and space world.

Mendler’s background is an unconventional one in the aerospace sector: after her early entertainment career she pivoted into tech, co-founding Northwood with her husband and two technical partners and shepherding the startup from seed funding into today’s bumper Series B.

Northwood’s systems are designed to address that bottleneck by making ground infrastructure more modular, scalable and faster to bring online.

In February 2024, the company raised $6.3 million in a funding round that had attracted Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz and Also Capital.

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