The Compression Company raises $3.4M to unlock the 98% of satellite data that never reaches Earth

Satellites are capturing more Earth observation data than ever, but limited bandwidth means only a fraction makes it back to Earth in time to be useful.

The Compression Company is solving this bottleneck with AI-driven compression that runs directly onboard satellites, reducing file sizes by over 95% and enabling each one to transmit far more data to Earth during each short ground-station pass. Today, the company announced a $3.4 million pre-seed round led by Long Journey, early backers of SpaceX, Uber, and Anduril among others.

The volume of data generated in space is staggering and rapidly growing. The EU's Copernicus Sentinels alone produce 20 terabytes daily, and leading commercial constellations generate several times that. Over the next decade, more than 5,400 additional EO satellites are expected to launch - nearly triple the previous ten years.

Every new satellite adds to the volume of imagery and sensor data captured about the Earth - data that can inform everything from climate monitoring and disaster responses to defence, agriculture, and global logistics.

Satellite operators can capture extraordinary levels of detail, but getting that data back to Earth remains a fundamental challenge. Satellites operate with limited bandwidth and typically have only a few minutes per pass to transmit data when they come within range of a ground station - an antenna on Earth that receives satellite data. As a result, only 2% of the data recorded by each satellite makes it back to Earth, while the rest is delayed, degraded, or discarded, despite its potential value and the high cost of collecting it.

The Compression Company reduces the size of the data directly on the satellite, shrinking the size of files without compromising accuracy or usability. Rather than using blanket compression, the platform applies different levels of compression within each image. Cloud cover, which accounts for nearly 60% of satellite imagery, is compressed far more heavily, since it returns little value for users. In maritime surveillance, detected ships are preserved at full fidelity while the surrounding ocean is compressed more aggressively. The principle is the same: save bandwidth for high-value data.

This allows operators to download far more data during each transmission window, reduce storage and transmission costs, and deliver usable information faster and more frequently. As satellites are increasingly launched with more onboard compute, including graphics processing units (GPUs), the company is able to deliver this capability as a software-only solution, deploying advanced compression directly in orbit without requiring new hardware.  

184MB (Raw image)	6MB (Compressed)

“There’s been huge investments in capturing more data from space, but far less attention paid to how that data actually gets back to Earth,” said Michael Stanway, Co-founder and CEO of The Compression Company. “Until now, the answer has been to launch more satellites. We’re taking a different approach - using software to compress data in orbit, so operators can bring down more useful information from existing satellites and unlock more value from the data they’re already capturing.”

The company was founded by Michael Stanway (CEO) and Joe Griffith (CTO), who met while studying neurotechnology at Imperial College London. Stanway's research focused on keeping brain tissue alive outside the body - work that required handling massive imaging datasets. Griffith studied how the brain itself compresses information, developing neural network approaches to data compression. Griffith left his PhD to co-found the company after the pair recognised that the same techniques could solve bottlenecks far beyond neuroscience, and identified space as the clearest opportunity.

After applying their combined expertise across a range of data-intensive domains, the pair identified space as the clearest and most urgent opportunity - an industry where limited bandwidth directly caps how much value can be extracted from data.

“AI compression unlocks a huge opportunity with Earth Observation data. Operators have always had to make trade-offs about what gets sent,” said Joe Griffith, CTO of The Compression Company. “When more of the data you collect can actually make it to the ground, those trade-offs change and you can be far more selective about what you throw away, and far more ambitious about the services you build on top.”

The Compression Company emerged from Entrepreneurs First, an international talent investor, with strong early traction and has shipped its first orbital deployment, scheduled to go live in Q1 2026. The new funding will be used to expand the engineering team and support further commercial rollouts with satellite operators.

“Space has become a data industry, but the ability to move and work with that data has lagged badly behind its generation,” said Lee Jacobs, Managing Partner and Founder, Long Journey. “The Compression Company is tackling one of the most fundamental constraints in the ecosystem with a software-first approach that’s both technically ambitious and immediately useful to operators. Michael and Joe pair deep, original thinking with real builder instincts, and we’re excited to back them as they create a new layer of infrastructure for the space data stack.”

As the space economy continues to expand, the company believes intelligent compression will become a foundational capability, supporting operators to capture more, deliver insights faster, and provide new products without launching new hardware.

“We’re at an inflection point,” added Stanway. “Once data transmission is no longer the bottleneck, the pace of innovation across Earth observation and its applications can increase dramatically. Our goal is to make that possible.”