The Compression Company, a startup focused on advanced data compression for satellites, has raised $3.4 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Long Journey, with participation from Ludlow Ventures, Forward Deployed Venture Capital, Entrepreneurs First, Transpose Platform, Fractal Capital, and Ventures Together.
The company is tackling one of the most significant bottlenecks in the rapidly expanding satellite industry: getting data from space back to Earth.
Over the past decade, satellite operators have deployed nearly 1,000 Earth observation satellites into orbit. These satellites capture increasingly high-resolution imagery used to track wildfires, monitor crop health, map infrastructure, and guide disaster response efforts. However, despite the dramatic increase in sensing capabilities, transmission bandwidth from orbit to ground stations has not kept pace.
As a result, much of the data collected in space never reaches Earth.
Because satellites already in orbit cannot have their hardware upgraded, improving downlink capacity requires a software-based approach. The Compression Company is building next-generation compression technology designed specifically for satellite data. While many modern satellites still rely on legacy compression algorithms, the growing availability of GPUs in orbit enables more advanced methods.
The company is leveraging neural networks that learn the structure of the data they compress, significantly increasing efficiency. By applying AI-driven compression techniques, The Compression Company enables satellite operators to transmit up to 10x more data with the same existing bandwidth, without requiring hardware changes.
As more sensors are launched into orbit, the volume of data generated in space continues to rise sharply. The Compression Company’s technology is designed to ensure that a greater share of that data can successfully make the journey home.
