Star Catcher

TLDR: How the month went

  • Highlights: 
  • Won DoD SBIR Phase II Proposal. Opens door to larger DoD contracts for utilizing the Star Catcher Network for national security space purposes. Received notification on 8/1!
  • Closed $10M Oversubscribed Opportunistic Round. Strong signal of all current investors increasing their ownership and added high quality new generalist and specialist investors.  
  • Completed Critical Design Review on Cape Canaveral Demo. On track for test campaign at the Shuttle Landing Facility in late September. 
  • Lowlights: 
  • FAA approvals may delay ground-to-balloon demonstration however this is a non-core portion of the Cape Canaveral Demo. Technical validation will occur via other demos. 
Financial Metrics
  • Cash on hand: $16,051,583 (includes $8.9M of $10.2M in new cash from SAFE’s)
  • Monthly Burn: $1,071,337
  • Note: higher than average burn is due to $400k milestone payment to AstroDigital for DemoSat-1 satellite bus and integration and for purchasing of long lead items for upcoming demos and in line with current budget
  • As of 7/31, all $10.2M of SAFE’s have been fully executed.
  • Received $525,000 from Space Florida for Cape Canaveral Demo milestone
  • Months of Runway: 22 including remaining Space Florida milestones
  • Current runway extends to March 2027; evaluating capital efficient increases in spend in certain areas to accelerate growth and increase value. Will maintain flexibility and not bring runway in past EOY 2026.
  • Current runway does Not include recent SBIR win or assume any other cash inflows other than currently contracted Space Florida milestones.
  • Next quarter will see higher spend due to heavy procurement for upcoming demos.
Business Development Metrics                                          
  • Number of Customers                                
  • Active Commercial Leads: 146 (+0)                  
  • Active Government Leads: 175 (+8)                 
  • Leads older than 8 weeks converted to opportunities: 30% (0%)                                   
  • LOI’s and Letters of Support Signed: 37 (+1)                                
  • Goal: 24 by 6/2026                       
  • LOI Win Rate: 79% (+0%)                    
  • LOI $ Run Rate: $2.91B/Year (+$150M); TCV: $15.48B (+$750M)                      
  • Bids submitted as of 7/31/2025                                  
  • Total Bids Submitted (number, value): 18 (+0), $12.25M (+$0)                                 
  • Government (number, value): 11 (+0), $12.0M (+$0)                  
  • Commercial (number, value): 7 (+0), $250K (+$0)                             
  • Won (number, value):  7 (+1), $1.98M (+$25K)                             
  • Government (number, value): 2 (+0), $1.82M (+$0)                        
  • Commercial: (number, value): 5 (+1), $160K (+$25K)                               
  • Lost (number, value): 6 (+0), $7.60M (+$0)                           
  • Government (number, value):  6 (+0), $7.60M (+$0)                       
  • Commercial: (number, value): 0 (+0), $0 (+$0)                            
  • Pending (number, value): 5 (-1), $2.57M (-$25K)                        
  • Government (number, value): 3 (+0), $2.50M (+$0)                        
  • Commercial: (number, value): 2 (-1), $75K (-$25K)
NOTE: Value is definitized cash value. It does not include options or total potential contract value. This data does not reflect the SBIR Phase II win on 8/1 referenced in the TLDR section.     
  • Current weighted backlog of PPA’s: $150M
  • BD Highlights: 
  • Signed PPA with Astro Digital to provide power to their spacecraft for them and on behalf of other customers. 
  • Attended the AIAA ASCEND conference in July, and had very productive conversations with both commercial and government prospects. We also signed an LOI with Ascent Solar at the conference! 
Qualitative Updates
This month marks one year since the public unveiling of Star Catcher. It was an incredibly productive and meaningful month for the team. 
On the technical front, the team made significant progress in preparing for the Cape Canaveral 4 km demonstration in September. The system design passed its Critical Design Review, the last gate before assembly and testing. All major long lead items have been procured and have begun arriving. The team has also conducted multiple tracking system and power beaming system tests over 500-1,000 meter distances at Reynolds Air Park, a local airport where we have leased an inactive runway for testing.
On the commercial front, we secured two major wins: signing AstroDigital to a Power Purchase Agreement and being selected for our first SBIR Phase II award with DoD. The AstroDigital PPA is our largest value signed PPA with our most mature customer to date. The SBIR award has been a strategic priority for us because it unlocks significant DoD contract pursuit opportunities. We continued to expand our marketing and communications efforts with high engagement social media releases and participation on a panel at AIAA ASCEND, a major space conference. Planning is underway for our inaugural Developer Day on November 4th. 
On the capital formation front, we are pleased to welcome our new investors to the company! We closed an oversubscribed round of $10.2M at the end of the month on a $100M pre-money SAFE. We built on this momentum and kicked off our Series A process with informal update/coffee meetings with potential Series A lead investors in SF and NYC. We plan to officially launch the Series A raise in Q4 and are actively building out materials for that effort.
Operations & Facilities
  • Signed lease with Reynolds Airpark in the Jacksonville area to use an abandoned runway for >1 km testing. Successfully completed first rounds of testing. 
  • Procured vibe table to accelerate testing and validation of flight hardware. Installation scheduled for early August.
People Operations Updates
  • Recruiting continued in July for our open optical and senior systems engineer positions alongside pursuing referrals from Approach Venture. Additionally, we opened three new positions in July to support upcoming demos and missions– an ACDS Engineer and two Electrical Engineer roles.
As we closed out July we opened up the application process for our Fall 2025 engineering internship. One of summer interns has accepted our offer to join our team as a FTE Mechanical Engineer following completion of her internship in August.
Total company headcount as of July 31: 26 FTE’s, 4 contractors, 7 paid interns.
July New Hires:
  • Early career Mechanical Engineer- Start date 8/18
  • Open Jobs:
  • Optical/Laser Systems Engineer (1)
  • Opto-Mechanical Engineer (1)
  • Senior Systems Engineer (1)
  • ACDS Engineer (1)
  • General Electrical Engineer (1)
  • Spacecraft Electrical Engineer (1)