Albedo

Albedo is a platform that designs and operates satellites that capture imagery at a higher resolution. It is based in Denver, Colorado, and Austin, Texas, and was founded by AJ Lasater, Topher Haddad, and Winston Tri in 2020. The company participated in the Y Combinator accelerator program batch W21.

The company was founded with the intention of developing "aerial-quality" images from satellites positioned in space instead of from drones or aircraft; it has plans to launch its first satellite in 2024 but wants to launch a "full constellation" of refrigerator-size satellites to gather electro-optical imagery with ten-centimeter resolution and thermal imagery with two-meter resolution satellites by 2027.

With eight satellites, the company can provide daily image revisits; with 24, it can do that three times each day, though the eight-satellite fleet will be an early milestone for the startup, said Topher Haddad, Albedo CEO and co-founder.

In April of 2021, Albedo closed its Seed round of funding landing $10,000,000 in support from investors like Initialized Capital, Soma Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Jetstream Rebel fund.

Albedo also announced significant participation from several Angel investors including U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom Sheridan, former Space and Missile Systems Center commander; Keith Masback, former CEO of the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation; Lookout co-founder Kevin Mahaffey; Daniel Kan, Cruise co-founder and chief product officer; Immad Akhund, Mercury co-founder and CEO; James Park, Fitbit co-founder and former CEO; and Harsh Patel, former Galvanize CEO.