Northwood just closed a funding round to enable it to work on the “ground problem”, basically the infrastructure that connects satellites with Earth. It is unlike traditional space companies that focus on rockets and satellites themselves.

Currently, it can take longer to secure ground connectivity than it does to build and launch a spacecraft. Satellite companies are often forced to act as infrastructure companies, putting together hardware from multiple vendors, resulting in “vendor sprawl” and manual, unreliable systems.

Northwood is vertically integrating the entire ground stack, their aim is to make ground connectivity like cloud computing. Like the cloud, it is on demand, scalable and software-driven. Northwood uses portal phased arrays instead of traditional mechanical dishes, using electronically steered beams. This allows them to track multiple satellites across LEO, MEO and GEO orbits simultaneously without any mechanical moving parts.

Northwood’s portal phased arrays can be rapidly deployed, installing and powering up arrays in just 12 hours. Their hardware is also the highest-power commercial communications phased array ever built. They have also moved from contract to operational links with the US Space Force in only 3 months.

With the new capital, Northwood plans to scale. By the end of 2026, they plan to have 18 global sites and 82 operational beams, providing high speed, low-latency backbone needed for the next generation of satellite constellations.