Northwood Space Secures $100M Series B and $50M Space Force Contract

El Segundo-based space technology startup Northwood Space announced it has secured $100 million in its Series B funding round. The funding will support advanced space missions that move from launch to full operations on short timelines. It also announced a $49.8-million contract award from the U.S. Space Force to upgrade the Satellite Control Network. This is the infrastructure used for launches and early satellite operations, to track and control satellites and to provide emergency support to tumbling and lost satellites. The round was led by Washington Harbour Partners, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and includes participation from Balerion Space Ventures, Alpine Space Ventures, Founders Fund, Stepstone, Fulcrum, Pax and 137 Ventures. “What we are passionate about is helping space missions go further, faster. With the capital, we are able to build the end-to-end system for ground networks,” said Bridgit Mendler, co-founder and chief executive, in an interview with CNBC. Founded in 2023 by Mendler, Griffin Cleverly and Shaurya Luthra, Northwood is a ground infrastructure provider, from initial concept through deployment to live data delivery. The start-up has built a multi-beam phased array system, called Portal, which is designed to add capacity for functions like those needed by the SCN and other commercial missions. As of January 2026, Northwood has deployed operational Portal units across two continents. By the end of 2026, Northwood will have the capacity to consistently produce over a dozen arrays per month for its Portal product, in addition to production volumes on yet-to-be announced additional ground products, the company said in a statement. “Private capital is accelerating the commercialization of space at an unprecedented pace,” said Phil Scully, co-founder and general partner at Balerion Space Ventures, in a statement. “As launch costs collapse, the bottleneck shifts to Earth. Ground infrastructure is the critical foundation every orbital mission depends on, and the companies building that enabling layer will define the space economy for decades to come. That’s where Balerion invests.”