Northwood, a Torrance, California company that builds ground stations for communicating with satellites, has raised $375m in a Series C round. The company announced the financing on 2 November 2026.
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and DFJ Growth co-led the round. Alpine Space Ventures, Washington Harbour Partners, Stepstone Activate and In-Q-Tel (IQT) also took part, along with other investors that were not named. Northwood also arranged a multi-year credit facility with HSBC Innovation Banking for working capital and network expansion. It did not disclose the size of that facility.
The company's announcement did not include a valuation. Via Satellite and SatNews both reported that the round valued Northwood at $2bn after the investment.
“We have built hardware that performs and a network that can support the most demanding missions.”Bridgit Mendler, Co-founder and CEO, Northwood
What Northwood does
Satellite operators need antennas on the ground to send commands to their spacecraft and to download the data they collect. Northwood is building a shared network of these ground sites that operators can use instead of building their own. It designs and manufactures the antennas itself, runs the sites and sells access through software.
It makes two main antenna products. Portal is a flat phased-array antenna used for command and control; according to Via Satellite, one Portal can communicate with six satellites at once. The company says ten Portals working together can match the receiving performance of a 20-foot dish. Prism is a high-throughput dish for moving large volumes of payload data. Customers book satellite passes through an application programming interface.
Northwood says it now runs six sites on two continents that can serve satellites in different orbits. It says a new site takes about three months to set up and a new antenna can go live within three to four hours. Its goal is to have sites capable of more than 100 gigabits per second in high-demand regions by the end of 2027.
Customers and contracts
The company said it had won new customers and contracts with US government agencies, newer commercial space operators and established satellite operators since its last round, without naming them.
Earlier in 2026 it won a $49.8m contract from the US Space Force to help modernise the Satellite Control Network, which tracks and commands Defense Department satellites, according to Via Satellite and SatNews. Via Satellite reported that the work uses the Portal product line. Chief executive Bridgit Mendler told the publication that Northwood is aiming at operators planning large constellations, and that the company built 29 antenna units over the past year.
What the money is for
Northwood said it will use the money to deliver on existing contracts, hire staff and build out its global ground network. SatNews reported that the capital will also pay for higher production of Portal terminals and for buying new sites outside the US.
The company has more than 140 employees and plans to add 400 jobs in Torrance and Washington, DC over the next three years. It has grown its manufacturing space more than fivefold and now operates a 185,000-square-foot headquarters and factory in Torrance.
The funding so far
Northwood was founded in 2023, according to Crunchbase News. It raised a $30m Series A in April 2025 and a $100m Series B in January 2026. Washington Harbour Partners led the Series B with a16z as co-lead, and Founders Fund, Alpine Space Ventures, Balerion Space Ventures, Fulcrum and 137 Ventures also invested, Crunchbase News reported at the time. That outlet put the company's total funding at more than $136m after the Series B.
The new round means Northwood has raised two large rounds in less than a year. Mendler, a co-founder, said communications had been neglected for decades even though every space mission depends on it.
Company website: northwoodspace.io