Spotlight

What if operating a satellite constellation was as simple as managing a cloud server?

Quick Pitch: Basalt is building fully autonomous satellite constellations for governments and Fortune 500 companies. Its operating system turns satellites into software defined systems, allowing new capabilities to be added without rebuilding the hardware.

The Problem

• Software Bottleneck: Hardware is increasingly commoditized, but satellite software remains custom built and manually operated. Updates often require rewriting major portions of the system.

• High Operating Costs: Traditional constellations require heavy human oversight, leaving incumbents with ~8% margins.

• Limited Portability: Software is tightly coupled to hardware, preventing interoperability across platforms.

Snapshot

• Industry: Space technology, autonomous systems

• Headquarters: San Francisco, California

• Year Founded: 2023 (YC W24)

• Traction: First regulatory approval for a constellation with no human operator. Satellites and ground stations built. Demo launch scheduled for June 2026.

Founder Profiles

• Maximillian Bhatti, Co-Founder, CEO: Former SpaceX systems engineer; roles at The Aerospace Corporation, Caltech fusion lab, and MIT CubeSat.

• Alex Choi, Co-Founder, COO: Aerospace engineer at UK Ministry of Defence; project manager at MIT AeroAstro. Background in embedded and distributed spacecraft systems

Funding

• Current Round: Raising $5M (Seed+)

• Lead Investors: Initialized Capital, Liquid2 

• Other Backers: General Catalyst, Y Combinator, Palm Drive Capital

• Total Raised: $3.5M ( Seed)

Revenue Engine

• Constellations as a Service (CaaS): Autonomous software paired with commoditized hardware to deploy and operate constellations end-to-end.

• Go-to-Market: Government (secure comms, GPS-like tracking) and enterprise (infrastructure monitoring, chemical leak detection, insurance claims)

What Users Love

• Fully autonomous operations with no human operators required

• Software portability across hardware platforms

• Up to 90% reduction in operating costs

• End-to-end constellation solution

Playing Field

• Muon Space: Custom data services, but no fully autonomous operating stack.

• Planet: Autonomous data provider with queue constraints and limited customization.

• ICEYE: Strong workflow integration but lacks full autonomy and flat pricing.

Why It Matters

The NewSpace Index projects 1,000 satellite constellations by 2040, representing an estimated $19B market, driven by defense modernization, secure communications, earth observation, and global IoT. As launch costs decline and hardware becomes more accessible, the constraint shifts to operating and coordinating constellations at scale, positioning the software layer as the next major source of value.

What Sets Them Apart

• Autonomous satellite OS portable across hardware platforms

• First regulatory approval for a constellation with no human operator

• 52% gross margin profile in a traditionally low margin sector

• Lean team with direct distributed space systems experience

Analysis

Bulls Case 📈 

• Regulatory approval creates early moat and deployment credibility

• 52% gross margins with structural cost advantage

• Hardware commoditization favors a software-defined layer

• Large projected market expansion (~$19B)

Bears Case 📉 

• Capital intensive demo and deployment cycles

• Long, procurement heavy government sales cycles

• Scaling risk from demo to production deployments

• Potential competitive response from defense incumbents

Verdict

Basalt is shifting value in space from hardware to software, targeting cost reduction and margin expansion as hardware commoditizes and operations remain manual. Regulatory approval marks the first inflection point, and the June 2026 launch will test commercial conversion rather than technical feasibility. The upside lies in becoming the operating layer for autonomous constellations with software like margins in a defense driven market, while the risk centers on execution, long sales cycles, and potential incumbent integration. The core question is whether Basalt can establish control of the software layer before larger players move in.

The Startup Pulse

Another happening week in startup funding. AI continues to dominate, with strong momentum in energy, enterprise AI infrastructure, and climate tech.

• World Labs — Raised ~$1B to build spatial intelligence “world models” that reason about 3D environments for robotics and real-world systems, backed by leading AI, hardware, and institutional investors.

• LanzaJet — Secured $47M to scale its alcohol-to-jet sustainable aviation fuel technology and expand commercial deployments with airline and energy partners.

• SPRX (Now Onshore) — Raised $31M Series B to automate corporate tax incentive discovery and compliance, replacing manual, consulting-heavy workflows with AI.

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Written by Ashher

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