Satlyt Secures $8 Million Seed Round for Orbital AI Network

Satlyt, a startup based in both Sunnyvale and Nairobi, has closed an $8 million seed funding round led by Non Sibi Ventures. This investment will fuel the company’s mission to transform existing satellites into distributed AI networks without requiring new hardware.

The startup’s approach differs from traditional space ventures that focus on building new spacecraft. Instead, Satlyt develops software that optimizes unused computing power already in orbit—a strategy founder Rama Afullo compares to VMware or Snowflake for cloud infrastructure. ‘If SpaceX is the iPhone, we’ll build Android,’ he explained.

Satlyt’s initial software deployment occurred this week aboard a SpaceX rocket alongside Google’s Project Suncatcher prototype. Early tests using Google’s Gemma model on a Momentus spacecraft demonstrated over 60% reductions in data transmission sizes—a significant cost saving for satellite operators who pay for downlink bandwidth.

Addressing the Orbital Data Centre Challenge

The company is targeting a growing market as companies like SpaceX and Google explore orbital data centres. While these facilities could generate trillions in revenue, they face substantial barriers: estimated costs of $170 billion for a 1-gigawatt facility—more than three times terrestrial alternatives—and current compute prices that run four times higher.

Satlyt’s software-first approach avoids these capital traps by focusing on optimizing existing hardware. The company has signed agreements with the Kenya Space Agency and Angola’s GGPEN to deploy AI-driven Earth observation solutions for agriculture, climate monitoring, and disaster response.

Kenyan Talent Driving Innovation

The Satlyt team—led by CEO Rama Afullo and including Leina Moli, Junn Wangari, and Nelson Psenjen—is entirely Kenyan-American, with engineering concentrated in Nairobi. This positions the company to address a critical need for African nations that currently spend billions importing satellite data they lack the local capacity to process.

Satlyt aims to have its software running on 20% of satellites by 2030—an ambitious goal that would establish it as a key player in making space computing more accessible and efficient. The company’s success could represent a new pathway for African nations to participate in the space economy without relying solely on expensive launch capabilities.