Astranis

Astranis is a satellite communications company building small telecommunication satellites that is headquartered in San Francisco, California and was founded in 2015 by John Gedmark and Ryan McLinko.

The company plans to launch satellites into geostationary orbit, farther from the earth, and in a location that will remain fixed. Astranis' goal is to put up satellites that are capable of providing immediate connectivity to broadband internet access to an estimated 4 billion people.

Astranis plans to send one satellite at a time to slots in geostationary orbit, 22,000 miles high, where each satellite can beam data up and down on a steady basis. Astranis plans to have its first operational satellite sent to geostationary Earth orbit in 2019.

Funding

Seed

On March 22, 2016 Astranis announced raising $120,000 in seed funding from Y Combinator, S2 Capital, Refactor Capital, Fifty Years, ACE & Company, Wei Guo, Samvit Ramadurgam, Lars Rasmussen, and Jaan Tallinn.

Series A

On March 1, 2018 Astanis announced raising $13.5 million in series A funding from Andreessen Horowitz (lead investor), Y Combinator, Refactor Capital, Indicator Fund, and Fifty Years.