Ground station startup founded by former Disney actor raises $6.3m
Summary
First reported by CNBC , the company is led by Bridgit Mendler, an actress and singer who was once a regular on the Disney Channel.Satellite ground station startup Northwood Space, a company led by a former Disney actor, has raised more than $6 million in seed funding.Mendler launched California-based Northwood Space with her husband Griffin Cleverly last year. The company reportedly aims to build satellite ground stations that are designed with fast production and deployment flexibility first in mind.This week the company secured $6.3 million in seed funding from Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Also Capital, Long Journey Ventures, BoxGroup, and Humba Ventures.At Northwood Space, we have our sights on building a data highway between Earth and space. We are designing shared ground infrastructure from first principles to expand access to space, Mendler said on X (formerly Twitter) this week.Mendlers Disney Channel acting credits include Wizards of Waverly Place, Lemonade Mouth, and Good Luck Charlie. She earned her earned her PhD from MITs Center for Constructive Communications and Social Machines group, and earned her JD from Harvard Law School.Husband Cleverly, who is now CTO at Northwood, has previously held roles at Lockwood Martin, the Mitre Corporation, MIT, Space Vector Corporation, and others.Northwood reportedly wants to deliver ground stations within days, not months, so that satellite operators dont spend as much time reconfiguring their networks. The company is initially aiming to serve Low Earth Orbit (LOE) satellites and companies that dont want to invest in building their own ground station networks.The startup told CNBC it aims to conduct a first test connecting to a spacecraft in orbit later this year.Excited to back Bridgit Mendlers startup, Northwood.