Starfish Space has completed new financing led by a leading defense technology investor to launch three full-scale satellite maintenance and inspection spacecraft in 2026.
The Washington-based startup Otter Spacecraft has two main objectives: extending the operational life of expensive satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO) and disposing of malfunctioning satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). Designed for the mission. This is a set of capabilities previously unavailable to satellite operators who launch satellites with the expectation that they will have a limited service life.
As Starfish CEO and co-founder Austin Link said in a recent interview, the goal is to “make it so affordable that the benefits of receiving satellite service outweigh the costs.”
The $29 million round was led by Shield Capital, a venture firm focused on funding technologies that impact U.S. national security. The company has participated in only a few other deals in the space industry. The round also includes participation from new investors Point72 Ventures, Booz Allen Ventures, Aero X Ventures, Trousdale Ventures, TRAC VC, and existing investors Munich Re Ventures, Toyota Ventures, NFX, and Industrious Ventures.
“You start a company not because you want to raise money, but because you want to build satellites,” Link told TechCrunch. Link co-founded Starfish with Trevor Bennett in 2019 after working as a flight science engineer at Blue Origin. They raised $7 million in 2021 and $14 million two years later. Last summer, Starfish launched its first demonstration mission, a subscale spacecraft aptly named Otterpup.
That mission didn't go as planned, but Starfish has racked up several wins since then, including three separate contracts for full-sized Otter spacecraft. This includes a $37.5 million contract with the U.S. Space Force for the first-ever docking and maneuvering mission with a defense satellite at GEO, and a contract with leading satellite communications company Intelsat for life extension services. The third contract, a $15 million NASA mission to inspect multiple defunct satellites in LEO, was announced as Starfish was in the midst of fundraising, Link said.
Link said Starfish began intentionally seeking investors with experience helping portfolio companies sell to governments. “Government is a customer that can be difficult to scale, so we thought if we had an investor who understood the process a little better, they would add to our cap table.”
Link added that the company sees demand “about evenly” between government and private customers.
Link said satellite servicing, life extension and satellite retirement are “exciting first steps” but are stepping stones to developing a broader set of capabilities for even more ambitious missions in orbit. He said there is.
“In the process, we will have a set of autonomy and robotics technologies, capabilities and datasets that will ultimately enable us to deploy a range of complex robotics and services in space, or ISAM-type missions. “These missions may be a little beyond our limits,'' he said. “I think a lot of that is far down the road and not necessarily what we're focused on right now…But some of the work that's being put into Otter today is funded through this funding round. In the long term, some of the growth there could have far-reaching implications for how Starfish Space launches humans into space.”