Kapta Space launches with $5 million in seed funding to build out its satellite radar technology
Kapta
- Kapta Space secures $5 million in seed funding led by MetaVC Partners.
- The startup develops electronically steerable, radar-based imaging technology for space.
- Kapta aims to launch low-cost satellites for improved imaging and analytics.
Kapta Space, a space tech startup, emerged from stealth Friday with $5 million in seed funding. MetaVC Partners led the round, with participation from Entrada Ventures and Blue Collective.
Before this round, the Seattle-based startup raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding in 2023 from MetaVC and other venture firms, along with a $1.8 million grant from the Department of Defense in 2023.
The five-person company is developing an electronically steerable, radar-based imaging technology for space. Unlike conventional antennas that rely on mechanical steering to capture images, Kapta's antenna steers its beam electronically. This approach expands its field of view, enabling faster, more precise scanning of large areas. The system can also rapidly switch between modes to capture images at different resolutions, gathering more high-resolution images in less time than conventional synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems, potentially lowering costs per image and providing a diverse set of data to its customers.
"We're taking something that's mature and productized for the counter-UAS radar sector," Adam Bily, Kapta cofounder and CTO, told Business Insider. "And we're applying it to some of the needs within the spaceborne radar, Earth observation, imaging, and tracking sectors."
Kapta's technology could improve radar data used across commercial industries. For example, mining companies rely on space-based radar data from high-end satellites, but these satellites pass over the same location on Earth's surface once every two weeks or so — too infrequent to meet their needs, Bily said. Kapta aims to launch a network of low-cost satellites that will work together to increase imaging and analytics while reducing the time between visits. Kapta's system also supports a three-dimensional imaging technique, which can allow mining companies to track changes in the Earth's surface.
The company's radar also has defense applications, such as tracking ground targets. In 2024, Kapta received a high-level security designation from the Department of Defense to enable future space missions at scale, CEO and cofounder Milton Perque said. Kapta is also working with one of the prime defense contractors on a radar mission, signaling interest from the government to partner with startups on such technology, Perque said.
Perque has worked on multi-function radar systems for over 25 years, most recently at Echodyne, a radar technology company. There, he met Adam Bily, who went on to work at Apple then Astranis Space Technologies, where he led the antenna team and helped develop communications satellites before cofounding Kapta.
While Northrop Grumman, a major defense contractor, has been developing SAR systems and other intelligence technologies for decades, startups are increasingly entering the radar technology market. Capella Space, a San Francisco-based startup, for example, makes satellite radar imagery technology for both commercial and governmental purposes.
With the new funding, Kapta hopes to bring on business development hires who can help navigate deals with government and commercial customers. They also aim to perform demonstrations of their technology in orbit.
"Space is becoming another warfighting domain," Perque said. "There are going to be lots of other missions that would be enabled by a low-cost, sophisticated sensor like this."
