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.
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.
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.
Timeline
The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz with additional participation by Y Combinator, Fifty Years, Refactor Capital and Indicator Fund.
Funding rounds
People
Adam Rothenberg
Investor
Amy Gu @ Hemi Ventures
Investor
Aneel Ranadive
Investor
Baiju Bhatt
Investor
Baird Hendrix
Employee
Brady Salz
Employee
Brett Jackson
Investor
Cory Wiltshire
Employee
David Beyer
Investor
David Lee
Investor
David Tisch
Investor
Derek Guo
Employee
Girts Folkmanis
Employee
Han Zhang
Employee
Jaan Tallinn
Investor
Jake Gibson
Investor
Jeff Chung
Investor
John Bowen
Employee
John Conafay
Employee
John Gedmark
Co-founder and CEO
John Wolthuis
Investor
Josh Buckley
Investor
Joshua Schachter
Investor
Jude Gomila
Investor
Kyle Joba-Woodruff
Employee
Further reading
Why We're Excited About Alaska - John Gedmark - Medium
John Gedmark
Web