CesiumAstro announced it has secured $470 million in Series C growth capital to accelerate U.S. expansion and global deployment of its software-defined, AI-enabled space communications platforms. The Austin, Texas-based space and defense communications provider said the raise combines $270 million in equity and a $200 million financing package structured as a public-private partnership.
The equity portion was led by Trousdale Ventures, with participation from Woven Capital, Janus Henderson Investors, Airbus Ventures, the Development Bank of Japan Inc., MESH, NewSpace Capital, and other investors, the company said. CesiumAstro also disclosed a $200 million financing package backed by the Export-Import Bank of the United States and J.P. Morgan, describing it as a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership under the “Make More In America” initiative.
CesiumAstro said the new capital will support a rapid scale-up agenda, including construction of a 270,000-square-foot headquarters, manufacturing expansion, and faster rollout of its communications systems across commercial, government, and national security missions. The company also said proceeds will fund the continued development of AI-enabled communications capabilities, scale production of Element, its fully integrated low-Earth-orbit satellite, and expand technical and program teams globally.
The company positioned the funding as validation of its operational execution across multiple government and commercial programs, citing rising demand for resilient, high-throughput space architectures as a tailwind for the proliferation of space and defense networks.
KEY QUOTES:
“This is a scale moment. Our technology is moving from breakthrough to American Industrial backbone. This funding lets us deliver resilient, AI-enabled communications to “connect, detect and defend” at global scale—faster.”
Shey Sabripour, Founder and CEO of CesiumAstro
“CesiumAstro embodies the kind of enduring innovation we look for—engineering excellence with the discipline to deliver hardware over hype. We’ve backed the company across multiple rounds because this team isn’t chasing headlines—they’re building a forever company. Over the past year alone, CesiumAstro moved from announcing its first fully integrated satellite to securing eight SpaceX rideshare launches, accelerating on-orbit validation. Their momentum and maturity set them apart.”
Phillip Sarofim, Founder of Trousdale Ventures
“CesiumAstro is fundamentally redefining how we connect the world from space. By moving away from rigid, legacy hardware and toward a modular, software-defined approach, they’ve unlocked a level of flexibility the industry hasn’t seen before. CesiumAstro brings together deep technical and industry expertise, enabling the team to reliably deliver mission-ready systems at scale for both government and commercial customers today, with a clear path to new applications like vehicles in the near future.”
Will Fung, principal at Woven Capital
“This raise reflects broad confidence in our execution across commercial and defense markets. With the addition of significant non-dilutive EXIM financing, this funding both validates our progress and accelerates our next phase of growth.”
Ken Smith, CFO of CesiumAstro
