Apolink, a Y Combinator-backed space-tech startup based by a 19-year-old Indian-origin entrepreneur, has raised $4.3 million in an “oversubscribed” seed spherical at a $45 million post-money valuation to construct a real-time connectivity community for satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO).
The startup is tackling a persistent drawback in area communications. Satellites regularly go offline throughout elements of their orbit as a result of lifeless zones — intervals when they aren’t within the line of sight of a floor station. Whereas relay satellites and world floor station networks assist scale back this downtime, they solely present partial options.
That hole has turn out to be vital because the area trade evolves. For years, NASA relied on its Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) system to keep up near-continuous contact with satellites in geostationary orbit. However in 2022, the company introduced it will gradually phase out TDRS and transition to industrial suppliers for satellite tv for pc communications. Most of those industrial techniques nonetheless concentrate on geostationary or medium Earth orbits. Apolink, previously referred to as Bifrost Orbital, goals to alter that by offering 24/7 connectivity to LEO satellites — with every orbital ring designed to deal with 256 customers at 9.6kbps.
“LEO has its personal benefits,” mentioned Apolink founder Onkar Singh Batra in an unique interview. “It’s a lot nearer than geostationary orbit, which implies closing the hyperlink between the client satellite tv for pc and our constellation is method simpler… that’s the place you make the facility necessities restricted, and that’s the place the compatibility is available in as effectively.”
Apolink’s strategy stems from Batra’s early recognition of this connectivity problem. On the age of 14 in 2020, he developed an curiosity in area. In 2022, when he was in twelfth grade at a protection faculty within the northern Indian metropolis of Jammu, he created a satellite system named InQube, which emerged as India’s first open-source satellite tv for pc. He additionally taught area ecosystems to engineering college students as a visitor professor at IIT Jammu between 2022–23.
Whereas engaged on his first satellite tv for pc system, Batra acknowledged the satellite tv for pc connectivity drawback and observed that present options didn’t present backward compatibility, requiring particular {hardware} to allow community entry in orbit.
In keeping with Batra, the problem stay as a result of all different inter-satellite hyperlinks (ISLs) lack interoperability and should not compliant with the House Improvement Company’s necessities.
“We resolve this [through] our hybrid-RF optical structure and no person terminal, hardware-independent strategy,” he said.
Some startups have tried to handle darkish zones by constructing new floor stations. Nonetheless, Batra famous that floor stations are “very cumbersome to work with and may’t assure a 24/7 hyperlink.”
“The utmost you possibly can afford is a dependable steady hyperlink to the bottom in the course of the window,” he mentioned.
Based in 2024, the Palo Alto-based startup plans to unravel the issue with a constellation of 32 satellites that embody lasers and radios to allow connectivity even for satellites that lack particular {hardware}.
Apolink, which accurately means Apogee-plus-link, goals to supply nearly 99% uptime and 10–15 seconds of latency. The latency can be additional decreased to 2–3 seconds as soon as the community is established.
Firms, together with Amazon’s Kuiper and SpaceX’s Starlink, are additionally constructing inter-satellite hyperlinks to handle connectivity points for satellite tv for pc prospects. Nonetheless, Batra mentioned that the majority gamers with multipurpose constellations don’t dedicate them to digital relays, leading to restricted bandwidth out there for patrons. In addition they require prospects to have an optical terminal put in on their website for connectivity.
“Different ISL gamers concentrate on Ku/Ka-band and use optical terminals for EO picture downlink, and we don’t,” he instructed TechCrunch.
The startup has its personal FCC license, eliminating the necessity for patrons to satisfy extra licensing necessities. Moreover, it produces satellite tv for pc elements, together with lasers and radios, in-house to make sure they’re suitable with its algorithms.
In Q2 2026, Apolink goals to launch its preliminary demo mission through a SpaceX rideshare. The mission will characteristic a 3U know-how demonstration satellite tv for pc, LinkONE/IPoS, designed to substantiate the backward-compatible radio-frequency relay in low Earth orbit, Batra mentioned.
A second demo is predicted in June 2027, that includes two satellites. In 2028, the startup will roll out its industrial constellation, with the complete constellation of 32 satellites anticipated to be launched in 2029.
Regardless of being within the early phases, the startup has already secured greater than $140 million in letters of intent from firms within the Earth statement, communication, and spatial knowledge sectors, together with Astro Digital, Hubble Community, and StarCatcher Industries.
Its new seed spherical was backed by Y Combinator, 468 Capital, Unshackled Ventures, Insurgent Fund, Maiora Ventures, and a number of other angel traders, together with Laura Crabtree (CEO of Epsilon3), Benjamin Bryant (co-founder of Pebble Tech), and Kanav Kariya (president of Leap Crypto).
Apolink operates with has a core group of 4, every with greater than 5 years of trade expertise and from firms together with Maxar, Audacy, and Astra, situated inside a 4,000-square-foot R&D facility. The corporate at the moment focuses on spacecraft integration and testing and is working with early companions to validate its system in orbit.