The Seattle startup, Kapta Space, founded by former Echodyne engineers, plans to expand manufacturing and prepare its satellite radar hardware for its first orbital demonstrations as demand for space-based intelligence grows.
Seattle-based satellite radar startup Kapta Space has secured $24 million in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to $30 million. The investment will support the company’s efforts to manufacture lower-cost radar sensors, prepare its technology for spaceflight and move closer to demonstrating its capabilities in orbit.
The round was led by defense technology investor Washington Harbour Partners and co-led by Bison Ventures. Existing investor MetaVC Partners also participated, alongside MYDA Capital, Entrada Ventures, Aurelia Foundry and Fitz Gate Ventures.
The funding comes as Kapta works to address an important challenge in satellite-based intelligence: how to continuously monitor moving targets across vast areas without relying on radar systems that are expensive, power-intensive and difficult to manufacture at scale.
Rather than developing conventional satellite radar equipment, the company is pursuing a different approach using metamaterials and electronically steerable radar technology.
From a $5 Million Seed Round to $30 Million in Funding
Founded in 2023 by CEO Milton Perque and Adam Bily, Kapta Space has built its business around making advanced radar capabilities more accessible for satellite operators.
The company previously raised a $5 million seed round led by MetaVC, a metamaterials-focused investment fund backed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold.
Kapta also received a $1.8 million grant from the US Department of Defense, adding government support to its early development efforts.
With the latest Series A investment, the company has reported total funding of $30 million.
The new capital represents an important transition for Kapta. Its immediate priorities now extend beyond developing radar technology to expanding production capacity, completing the qualifications needed for spaceflight and preparing for initial orbital demonstration missions.
These steps will be crucial as the startup works to move its technology toward operational use.
MESA Technology Targets the Cost of Satellite Radar
At the centre of Kapta Space’s technology is its proprietary Metamaterial Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) architecture.
The system uses metamaterials to support electronically steerable radar sensors designed to deliver high-resolution geospatial imagery and track targets on the ground.
Conventional radar architectures can require substantial power, complex manufacturing processes and significant investment. Those constraints become particularly challenging when satellite operators need to deploy radar systems across large constellations.
Kapta is developing its MESA architecture to address those limitations through a modular design intended to be easier to manufacture and scale.
The company is also using a software-defined approach that allows radar beams to be redirected rapidly.
This capability is central to Kapta’s ambition of enabling satellites to detect and maintain continuous tracking of moving targets across land, sea and air.
The broader objective is to make persistent monitoring practical across satellite constellations, rather than relying on radar systems whose cost and complexity can restrict wider deployment.
“The mission calls for persistent awareness, and that requires us to rethink how radar has to work at constellation scale,” said Milton Perque, founder and CEO of Kapta Space.
“Traditional architectures are cost-prohibitive and were never designed for the scale these missions now demand.”
Former Echodyne Engineers Bring Radar Expertise to the Startup
Kapta’s founding team has considerable experience in radar engineering and advanced hardware development.
Both Milton Perque and Adam Bily previously held engineering leadership positions at Echodyne, a company specialising in radar technology.
Perque’s professional background also includes roles at Metacept and Intellectual Ventures, while Bily previously worked as an antenna engineer at Apple and satellite startup Astranis.
Their combined experience spans radar systems, antennas and satellite-related engineering, areas directly relevant to Kapta’s current product development.
The founders established Kapta in 2023 with the goal of developing radar systems capable of meeting the operational and economic requirements of next-generation satellite networks.
That background is particularly relevant as the company moves toward manufacturing expansion and spaceflight qualification, two areas where hardware performance and reliability will matter alongside cost.
Defense Investors Back Kapta’s Satellite Intelligence Ambitions
The involvement of Washington Harbour Partners brings a defense-focused investor into a leading role in Kapta’s latest financing.
The firm’s founder and CEO, Mina Faltas, highlighted the company’s modular radar architecture and its potential applications in future space systems.
“Kapta’s MESA architecture changes that equation with a modular, highly manufacturable approach to electronically steerable radar,” Faltas said.
He added that the investment firm believes Kapta’s combination of performance, cost and scalability could position the company as an important supplier for future US and allied space architectures.
For Kapta, the investment arrives amid growing demand for defense intelligence capabilities that depend on timely information about moving objects and activities across different environments.
Its technology is intended to help satellites maintain awareness of targets over time, rather than simply detect them at isolated moments.
However, the company still needs to complete its planned spaceflight qualification and orbital demonstrations. Those milestones will be important in establishing how its radar architecture performs in space.
Seattle’s Space Technology Ecosystem Provides a Strong Backdrop
Kapta is also part of a wider commercial space industry developing across Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.
The region hosts major satellite operations, including SpaceX’s Starlink facility in Redmond and Amazon’s Leo satellite constellation programme.
Alongside these larger operations, venture-backed startups are developing specialised hardware and technologies for the space industry.
Kapta’s focus on satellite radar places it within this hardware-driven segment of the regional ecosystem.
Its approach is centred on supplying radar capabilities that could support larger satellite networks, particularly where operators require persistent tracking and geospatial intelligence.
The latest financing gives Kapta additional resources to pursue that opportunity, although the company’s progress will depend on successfully completing the technical milestones ahead.
What Comes Next for Kapta Space?
Following the $24 million Series A round, Kapta Space has identified three immediate priorities: increasing manufacturing capacity, qualifying its radar hardware for spaceflight and preparing for its first orbital demonstration missions.
These efforts will determine how quickly the startup can progress from developing its MESA architecture to proving its capabilities in an orbital environment.
The financing also signals investor interest in technologies designed to reduce the cost and complexity of space-based radar systems.
For Kapta, the challenge is now to demonstrate that its lower-cost, electronically steerable radar architecture can deliver the performance and scalability envisioned by its founders.
The company’s next significant test will not be another fundraising milestone, but whether its MESA hardware can successfully make the transition from manufacturing to space.
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