Albedo, which is building satellites to map and monitor the Earth with powerful precision and detail, is raising a Series B funding round that would value the startup at $285 million before the additional funding, according to documents seen by Business Insider.
The investment firm General Innovation Capital is leading the round, which is set to bring in close to $100 million in new financing to the startup, the documents said.
Albedo and General Innovation Capital didn't respond to requests for comment.
Albedo's very low-Earth-orbit satellites collect visible and thermal imagery at the highest resolution commercially available for use in agriculture, insurance, energy, mapping, utilities, and defense.
It was valued in 2023 at a $150 million pre-money valuation, according to Pitchbook. Investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures (the investment firm of Bill Gates), Initialized Capital Management, Y Combinator, AWS Startups, and Booz Allen Ventures.
The new funding comes as the company has seen considerable momentum in recent months. The startup announced in March that it had signed a US Air Force contract worth up to $12 million and successfully launched its first satellite, Clarity-1.
"The launch of Clarity-1 is a pivotal moment for the space industry," Chris Bogdan, an Albedo investor and executive vice president at Booz Allen and the leader of the firm's space business, said in a press release after the launch. "The ability to collect ultra-high-resolution data at a fraction of the cost and timeline of traditional satellites is a transformational shift in space technology."
Based in Colorado, Albedo was founded in 2020 by AyJay Lasater, its chief technology officer, and CEO Topher Haddad, both of whom formerly worked at Lockheed Martin, as well as Winston Tri, its chief product officer and a former Facebook software engineer.
Albedo's imagery is so clear that it has raised dystopian privacy concerns about using satellites to track people from space.
"This is a giant camera in the sky for any government to use at any time without our knowledge," Jennifer Lynch, the general counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told The New York Times last year. "We should definitely be worried."
Haddad told the Times he's "acutely aware of the privacy implications" and that Albedo's technology would image people but couldn't identify humans.
