On January 27, 2026, Northwood Space, a Los Angeles-based startup co-founded by CEO Bridgit Mendler, achieved a major dual-milestone by closing a $100 million Series B funding round and securing a $49.8 million contract from the U.S. Space Force.
This surge of capital and government validation marks a turning point for the company as it seeks to eliminate the “ground-side bottleneck” that currently hinders both commercial mega-constellations and national security missions.
Series B Funding: Scaling the Infrastructure Backbone
The $100 million Series B was led by Washington Harbour Partners and co-led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from Founders Fund, Alpine Space Ventures, and Balerion Space Ventures. Coming less than a year after the company’s $30 million Series A, this round will be used to scale manufacturing of Northwood’s proprietary “Portal” phased-array ground stations. Unlike traditional parabolic dishes that can take months to install, Northwood’s vertically integrated systems can be built and deployed in as little as 12 hours, with the company now capable of producing eight Portals per month.
Modernizing the Space Force Satellite Control Network
The nearly $50 million contract with the Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) tasks Northwood with modernizing the Satellite Control Network (SCN). The SCN is the vital infrastructure used to track and control military and civilian satellites, but it has suffered from capacity constraints since at least 2011. Northwood’s phased-array technology allows for simultaneous tracking of satellites across LEO, MEO, and GEO orbits without mechanical movement, providing the high-throughput, real-time communication necessary as the number of orbital assets grows exponentially.
Operational Milestones and Future Roadmap
The company has already demonstrated the ability to deploy global network capacity at “cloud-like” speed, currently operating sites on two continents. By the end of 2027, Northwood expects its next-generation Portal systems to handle 10 to 12 simultaneous satellite links, up from the current capacity of eight. This scalability is designed to support the “Direct-to-Device” revolution and the military’s transition to Proliferated LEO (pLEO) architectures, ensuring that the ground segment can keep pace with the collapsing costs and increasing frequency of launches.
The Vision: A “Data Highway” for the Space Era
Mendler founded Northwood Space in 2023 along with Griffin Cleverly (CTO), and Shaurya Luthra (Head of Software). The company’s mission is to eliminate the “ground-side bottleneck” in the satellite industry. While rocket launches have become cheaper and more frequent, the ground stations required to communicate with those satellites have remained largely unchanged since the 1960s.
Northwood’s solution is a vertically integrated, phased-array ground station called Portal. Unlike traditional parabolic dishes that can only track one satellite at a time and take months to install, Northwood’s systems are:
- Modular and Scalable: Capable of connecting with multiple satellites across LEO, MEO, and GEO orbits simultaneously.
- Rapidly Deployable: Can be set up and operational in as little as 12 hours, compared to the industry standard of 18 months.
- Vertically Integrated: Northwood controls the entire “ground stack,” from hardware manufacturing to the software that manages data delivery.
| Funding & Contract Highlights (2026) | Details |
| Series B Amount | $100 Million |
| Lead Investors | Washington Harbour Partners, Andreessen Horowitz |
| Space Force Contract | $49.8 Million (3-year term) |
| Core Technology | Portal Phased-Array Ground Stations |
| SCN Modernization Goal | 10-12 simultaneous links by end of 2027 |
| Deployment Speed | Under 24 hours from arrival to live operation |
