Star Catcher Raises $65 Million Series A to Beam Concentrated Sunlight at Satellites, Bringing Total Funding to $88 Million

Overview

Florida-based space-energy startup Star Catcher said on May 12 that it has closed an oversubscribed $65 million Series A funding round to build what it calls the first power grid in space, according to the company’s announcement. The round brings Star Catcher’s total capital raised to $88 million and is meant to bankroll the first-ever space-based optical power-beaming demonstration later this year, the company said.

Star Catcher’s pitch is that satellites are constrained by the power their own solar arrays can collect, and that a shared orbital grid which beams concentrated energy to those existing panels can let operators scale spacecraft capability without building bigger solar wings. The company says its system is “built to deliver up to 10x more power to satellites with no retrofit or custom receiver required,” per the press release.

The Round

The Series A was led by B Capital and co-led by Shield Capital and Cerberus Ventures, with participation from existing investors GreatPoint Ventures, Helena, Oceans Ventures, and MVP Ventures, according to Star Catcher’s announcement. Via Satellite reports that the $88 million cumulative figure includes a $12.25 million seed round closed in 2024.

Three investors are taking board seats: General John W. “Jay” Raymond (Ret.), a Senior Managing Director at Cerberus and the first Chief of Space Operations of the U.S. Space Force; Jeff Johnson, General Partner and Global Head of Energy at B Capital; and David Rothzeid, a Principal at SHIELD, the company said.

The company is led by co-founder and CEO Andrew Rush, a former Made in Space and Redwire executive, according to Via Satellite. “This investment underscores the conviction that orbital infrastructure is now as fundamental as terrestrial infrastructure,” Rush said in the announcement. “Every major application driving the space economy — connectivity, computing, security, sensing — is power-limited today. Star Catcher is lifting that ceiling — making it possible to build in orbit at the scale the next century of life on Earth will demand.”

The Technology

Star Catcher’s system collects sunlight in orbit, concentrates it optically, and beams it across kilometers of vacuum to a target satellite’s existing solar arrays. Because the receiver is hardware the customer spacecraft already carries, no on-board modification is required, per the company.

The startup has run two ground-based demonstrations during 2025. In March 2025, the team beamed power across a 300-foot field at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, according to Space.com. Later in 2025, at Space Florida’s Launch and Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the company delivered more than 1.1 kilowatts of electrical power to commercial off-the-shelf solar panels, as reported by SpaceDaily. The press release describes the result as a world record for optical power beaming.

The next step is orbit. Star Catcher says it will launch “the first-ever space-based optical power beaming demonstration later this year,” with a second orbital mission already in development, per the company. SpaceDaily reports that the upcoming flight will aim to beam power from Star Catcher hardware to a free-flying satellite.

Customers and Pipeline

The company says it has signed seven power purchase agreements and secured multiple government contracts, with a qualified commercial pipeline representing “more than $3 billion in projected annual recurring revenue,” according to the press release.

The customer list, while not enumerated in the company’s statement, includes the orbital-data-center startup Starcloud, satellite-services provider Loft Orbital, and Earth-observation operator Astro Digital, according to Space.com and SpaceDaily. Starcloud is itself building toward gigawatt-scale orbital compute and previously reported by The Machine Herald reaching unicorn status with a $170 million Series A — an indication that the customer base for an orbital power grid is itself well capitalized.

The investor commentary frames Star Catcher as solving a constraint that limits the entire space economy. “At B Capital, we focus on scaling technologies to enhance energy infrastructure, and the same dynamics we’re seeing on Earth are now playing out in orbit,” said Jeff Johnson of B Capital in the announcement. “There is exploding demand, limited shared infrastructure, and a generational opportunity for the company capable of building the first in-orbit grid.”

Raymond, speaking for Cerberus, tied the technology to national-security applications: “Energy and infrastructure resilience are core national and economic priorities on Earth, as in orbit. Persistent surveillance, resilient communications, and unhindered maneuverability are all constrained today by power.”

What We Don’t Know

Neither the company nor the investors disclosed a post-money valuation for the round. The press release does not specify the satellite design, the optical aperture, the beam wavelength, the maximum range, or the planned recipient for the upcoming space-based demonstration. The kilowatt figure quoted by SpaceDaily refers to a ground test at Kennedy Space Center; the in-space numbers, including the size of the on-orbit beam, the receiver-side conversion efficiency, and the link budget across hundreds or thousands of kilometers, remain to be demonstrated.

The “up to 10x more power” figure cited by the company is a peak-capability claim. How that peak translates into average power delivered to a customer’s spacecraft over an orbital period, and whether the economics close against alternatives such as larger solar arrays or on-board batteries, will become clearer once the first space mission produces telemetry.