All-Star Team of Space Veterans Plan to Launch
an Orbital Demonstration in Late 2025
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., July 24,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Star Catcher Industries, Inc.
("Star Catcher", the "Company"), the pioneer in space-based energy
generation, today announced the closing of its $12.25M seed round. Initialized Capital and B
Capital co-led the round, with meaningful participation from Rogue
VC. With this funding, the Company is positioned to help eliminate
power constraints on space operations through the construction of
its Star Catcher Network, the world's first space-based energy
grid.
Once constructed, the Star Catcher Network will be a
first-of-its-kind energy grid able to beam significant levels of
broad spectrum energy to spacecraft in Low Earth Orbit ("LEO") and
beyond. The network will deliver energy on demand and at higher
concentrations of energy than the Sun to the existing solar arrays
of client spacecraft enabling them to generate up to five to ten
times the amount of power they would generate otherwise without
retrofit.
Demand for high-performing, power-intensive applications in
space, including space-based telecommunications, on orbit
computing, remote sensing, human spaceflight, and national security
applications, is growing exponentially. With LEO projected to host
more than 40,000 satellites by 2030, Star Catcher anticipates a
need for 840 megawatts of power generation to operate these
systems, compared to the tens of megawatts of power generation
capacity in space today. By providing spacecraft with higher
concentrations of energy to state-of-the-art solar arrays, the Star
Catcher Network will significantly magnify space-based power
generation to meet this growing demand and enable satellite
operators to expand capabilities and uptime while reducing upfront
spend.
Star Catcher was founded by longtime space entrepreneurs
Andrew Rush and Michael Snyder, alongside experienced VC
investor and operator Bryan
Lyandvert.
- Andrew Rush previously
served as CEO & President of in-space manufacturing trailblazer
Made In Space, where he led the company through its successful sale
to Redwire Corporation in 2020. Following the sale, Rush
became Redwire's founding President & COO, where he managed
hundreds of millions of dollars of development and delivery
contracts for commercial, civil, and national security customers.
He has spearheaded programs and initiatives that include replacing
solar arrays on the International Space Station, delivering
multiple shipsets of solar arrays and spacecraft navigation
components for national security customers, and developing and
delivering camera systems for the Artemis I mission.
- Michael Snyder served
alongside Rush as co-founder and Chief Engineer of Made In Space
and Chief Technology Officer of Redwire. One of the most
accomplished space technologists of the modern era, Snyder has
flown over a dozen payloads to space and holds more than 50 patents
on a wide variety of cutting-edge space technologies. Snyder is the
2022 recipient of the AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award for notable
contributions made to the aerospace industry.
- Bryan Lyandvert is a
well-known space investor with extensive experience in early stage
investing and capital formation from his time at MetaProp Ventures
and T-Bird Capital. Earlier in his career, Lyandvert worked at
Amazon, managing a multi-hundred-million-dollar wearables and
emerging technology P&L.
"Power infrastructure is the foundational building block of
civilization and industry; our goal is to expand that foundation
into LEO and beyond with our in-space power grid and service," said
Andrew Rush, Co-Founder, President,
and CEO of Star Catcher. "Being able to buy power for your
spacecraft whenever and wherever you need it in LEO will expand
opportunity and accelerate humanity realizing the potential of the
second golden age of space."
Star Catcher has made significant technical progress in
developing its constellation and has achieved early traction,
securing more than half a dozen letters of intent from commercial
space companies spanning the remote sensing, national security,
human habitat, and telecommunications verticals.
"Most any maturing sector requires solid, dependable, ubiquitous
infrastructure to really take off. We're confident Star Catcher
will do for orbital power what SpaceX has done for launch. They're
a proven, veteran commercial space team executing on an audacious
vision at high speed. What they're building has the potential to
transform the economics, capabilities, and even configuration of
most everything we put into orbit," says Andrew Sather, Principal at Initialized
Capital.
"As a longtime space sector investor, I view the network
Star Catcher is developing as one of the most potentially
transformational technologies in the dynamic and continuously
evolving space technology sector. Satellite launch costs continue
to fall, and power needs are accelerating with onboard processing.
At the same time, energy demand is vastly outstripping the supply
that current solar panels and batteries provide. Star Catcher's
founders are drawing from their extensive industry experience to
tackle this opportunity with a unique approach. At B Capital, we
support pioneering founders and companies shaping our future
through technology and are confident Star Catcher has the vision,
roadmap, and team to build the core infrastructure that will power
and reshape the future space economy," says Howard Morgan, Chair and General Partner of B
Capital.
With this seed funding, Star Catcher's immediate focus will be
on validating and demonstrating its power beaming services for
customers, beginning with ground demonstrations, followed by an
on-orbit demonstration in late 2025, and deployment of commercial
service. Once deployed, satellite operators can shift to a shared
infrastructure mindset, where power consumption will not be
constrained by what satellites bring with them.
About Star Catcher
Star Catcher Industries, Inc. (Star
Catcher) was founded in 2024 by multiple time successful space
entrepreneurs Andrew Rush and
Michael Snyder and experienced VC
and operator Bryan Lyandvert to
eliminate power constraints on satellites and other spacecraft by
constructing the Star Catcher Network: the world's first
space-based energy grid. Star Catcher's proprietary power beaming
technology will beam power to other satellites in space as a
service, enabling client spacecraft to use their existing solar
arrays to receive more power, more consistent power, and higher
concentrations of power in order to increase capability and uptime
as well as reduce upfront spending and overall mission cost.
For more information, please visit www.star-catcher.com
About Initialized Capital
Initialized Capital is an
early-stage venture firm that invests with conviction before it's
obvious. We're a diverse group of founders, builders, and operators
who understand how hard it is to build a company. We back
visionaries using software to make civilization better and support
them through product-market fit and beyond. We're early believers
in companies like Coinbase, Instacart, Flexport, and
Cruise. Initialized's portfolio—which spans over six core funds —is
worth close to $200 billion in market
value with 25 companies valued at $1
billion or more and 5 valued over $10
billion.
About B Capital
B Capital invests globally in
extraordinary founders and businesses shaping the future through
technology. With more than $7 billion
in assets under management and dedicated stage-based funds, the
firm focuses on seed to early- and late-stage venture growth
investments, primarily in the technology, healthcare and climate
sectors. Founded in 2015, B Capital has an integrated, global team
across eight locations in the U.S. and Asia. The firm's value-add platform, together
with the consulting expertise of its strategic partner, The Boston
Consulting Group, provides entrepreneurs with the tools and
resources to scale quickly and efficiently, expand into new markets
and build market-leading businesses. For more information, click
here.
Media Contacts
Star
Catcher
press@star-catcher.com
Initialized Capital
Daniel
Sherman
daniel@initialized.com
B Capital
Kate Thompson
/ Tim Ragones / Madeline Jones
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer
Katcher
212-355-4449
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/star-catcher-closes-12-25m-seed-round-to-transform-space-operations-with-worlds-first-space-based-energy-grid-302204864.html
SOURCE Star Catcher Industries, Inc.