Analysis
Northwood Space Corp. closed a $375 million Series C equity financing round on November 2, 2026, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and DFJ Growth, to build out the ground network that connects satellites to Earth.
What Northwood Space does
Northwood builds the ground-segment infrastructure that lets satellites talk to the internet and to each other, combining modular antenna hardware, manufacturing, software and site operations into a single network rather than selling a one-off antenna or ground station. Its two main products are Portal, a phased-array antenna for command-and-control links, and Prism, a high-throughput parabolic dish for payload data. Bridgit Mendler -- known to many as a former Disney Channel actress before co-founding the company -- is Northwood's co-founder and CEO; the company was founded in 2021, according to startup-tracking site StartupHub, and is headquartered in Torrance, California, where it opened a new 185,000-square-foot headquarters and factory in September 2026 that grew its manufacturing footprint more than fivefold. Northwood says it now employs more than 140 people and plans to add roughly 400 jobs across Torrance and Washington, D.C. over the next three years.
Northwood Space's funding history
A16z board director and general partner Katherine Boyle said in the Series C announcement that the firm has backed Northwood in every round since its seed. Northwood's rounds, oldest first:
“Northwood says it now employs more than 140 people and plans to add roughly 400 jobs across Torrance and Washington, D.C.”
- Seed -- $6.3M from Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz (per StartupHub; size not confirmed by Northwood)
- Series A, April 2025 -- $30M led by Alpine Space Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, with Also Capital, Founders Fund and StepStone Group participating, according to SatelliteToday
- Series B -- $100M led by Washington Harbour Partners (per StartupHub; Northwood's own release does not break out this round's size or date)
- Series C, November 2026 -- $375M co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and DFJ Growth
The new round also comes with a separate, multi-year credit facility from HSBC Innovation Banking to support working capital and network expansion -- debt layered on top of equity, a combination increasingly common in capital-intensive infrastructure startups.
Who invested in Northwood Space
Andreessen Horowitz and DFJ Growth co-led the $375 million round, with Alpine Space Ventures, Washington Harbour Partners, Stepstone Activate and In-Q-Tel -- the CIA's venture arm -- also participating, according to the company's announcement. DFJ Growth founder and managing partner Randy Glein said Northwood has moved from "a raw startup" to what he called a new-generation leader in the category.
Satellite ground infrastructure market and competitors
The round lands as the number of active satellites in orbit has grown from about 3,000 in 2020 to more than 14,000 by the end of 2025, according to Northwood's own release -- a fourfold-plus increase that has outpaced the ground stations needed to talk to them. Northwood's pitch is squarely against what its release calls "legacy incumbents" in ground infrastructure, though it does not name them; the company says it can now build hundreds of antennas a year at full production, stand up a new site in about three months, and bring a new antenna online in three to four hours. For context on how far a nine-figure round like this one still has to go, Pulse's own tracking shows funding checks of this size remain the exception rather than the rule even in a record year for venture dollars.
What to watch next
Neither Northwood nor its investors disclosed a formal post-money valuation in the primary announcement; a $2 billion figure reported by SpaceNews is the only valuation attached to this round, and it should be treated as reported rather than confirmed by the company itself. Northwood says it has demonstrated geosynchronous command capacity for a U.S. Space Force prototype and expects expansion announcements in the first half of 2027 -- worth watching given how much of its customer base so far sits with U.S. government agencies rather than commercial operators.
