CesiumAstro closes $470M in Series C capital for rapid U.S. growth in 2026

CesiumAstro has announced it secured $470 million in growth capital, cementing its position as a mission-critical provider of next-generation space and defense communications. The funding includes $270 million in equity, 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 global investors, alongside a $200 million financing package from Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) and J.P. Morgan, a first of its kind public-private partnership under the “Make More In America” Initiative.

The capital will fuel CesiumAstro’s rapid scale-up, including the build-out of a new 270,000-square-foot headquarters, expanded manufacturing capacity, and accelerated deployment of its software-defined, AI-enabled space communications platforms worldwide.

“This is a scale moment,” said Shey Sabripour, Founder and CEO of CesiumAstro. “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.”

The continued backing of strategic investors, alongside new institutional capital, underscores CesiumAstro’s growing role in the space and national security ecosystem.

“CesiumAstro embodies the kind of enduring innovation we look for—engineering excellence with the discipline to deliver hardware over hype,” said Phillip Sarofim, Founder of Trousdale Ventures. “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.”

The funding comes amid strong operational execution, as CesiumAstro advances multiple government and commercial programs and expands its portfolio of flight-proven, software-defined communications systems. With demand surging for resilient, high-throughput space architectures, the company is positioned to play a central role in proliferated space and defense networks.

"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," said Will Fung, principal at Woven Capital. “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.”

Proceeds will support expanded manufacturing, accelerated AI-enabled communications development, scaled production of Element, the company’s fully integrated LEO satellite, and growth of global technical and program teams.

“This raise reflects broad confidence in our execution across commercial and defense markets,” said Ken Smith, CFO of CesiumAstro. “With the addition of significant non-dilutive EXIM financing, this funding both validates our progress and accelerates our next phase of growth.”