Mantis Space, a space and advanced energy startup, announced it has emerged from stealth with an oversubscribed seed round of more than $10 million to develop orbital energy infrastructure designed to eliminate one of the oldest constraints in space operations: Earth's shadow.
The company is building a constellation of spacecraft that remain almost continuously in sunlight and transmit power to satellites operating in eclipse. This infrastructure allows satellites, space stations, and orbital compute platforms to receive power through their solar arrays in real time, regardless of their position relative to the sun. The round was led by Rule 1 Ventures alongside Montauk Capital, which incubated Mantis Space through its venture studio platform. The funding will be used to hire and grow out its go-to-market operations from its new headquarters in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The orbital economy now exceeds $600 billion and is projected to approach $1 trillion by 2040. The modern world increasingly depends on satellites to provide essential services, including GPS navigation, broadband connectivity, national intelligence capabilities, climate monitoring and global communications. Every satellite today operates under the same fundamental constraint: power generation depends entirely on direct sunlight. On average, satellites spend nearly one-third of their life in Earth's shadow. During these periods, energy production stops, systems rely on battery reserves, and operational performance declines, limiting return on investment for every satellite.
To compensate, many satellites are placed in orbits designed primarily to maximise exposure to sunlight rather than optimise mission productivity or revenue generation. The ever-popular Sun Synchronous orbits leave satellites outside of their revenue-generating and mission areas up to 70% of every day. Orbital power infrastructure changes that equation. By enabling satellites to receive power wherever they operate, spacecraft can remain in their most productive orbital positions rather than spending much of their operational life chasing sunlight. This flexibility can significantly increase mission utilization, extend operational lifetimes, and improve the economic return of satellite systems by 2-3x.
As satellites become more compute-intensive and mission-critical, these energy constraints grow more costly. Until now, they have largely been treated as an unavoidable limitation of space operations. "We are at the beginning of a space infrastructure supercycle," said Eric Truitt, CEO of Mantis Space. "Launch has scaled. Manufacturing has scaled. But performance in orbit is still constrained by physics. Every asset going up, whether it's a defense sensor, a broadband satellite, or an orbital compute node has the same power problem. We're building the grid that makes all of it work."
The Mantis Space executive team brings together aerospace, defense, and precision engineering credentials that map directly to the problem. The Founding team includes Truitt, who recently helped BlueHalo successfully exit to AeroVironment in a $4.5B transaction and previously co-founded PredaSAR and previously NYSE-listed Terran Orbital, which was acquired by Lockheed Martin. Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer Hugh Wyman Howard III served 32 years in Naval Special Warfare and joint special operations. His service also includes Director of Operations for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and today, he sits on a number of corporate boards. COO Jeremy Scheerer has led defense and intelligence portfolios at MapLarge and Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and managed a $1B+ U.S. Air Force program. All three Founders are U.S. military veterans.
Mantis Space has built a world-class team of experts with decades each of success in delivering products to market. Chief Engineer, John Sandusky, PhD, recently retired after more than 20 years of service leading Space, solar, and laser programs at Sandia National Laboratory. Director of Optical Engineering, Greg Brady, PhD, was a key designer of the optical systems inside Apple's Face ID and multiple camera systems before becoming an integral leader on the team responsible for the Optical Telescope Element within the James Webb Space Telescope. Director of Electrical Engineering, Quentin Diduck, PhD, recently led electrical engineering efforts in developing the MicroLED technology at Google (Raxium) and was the former Director of R&D at Eridan Communications leading innovations in switch-mode broadband transmitters.
The company is also supported by Admiral James A. Winnefeld Jr., the ninth Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Power is foundational infrastructure," said Admiral Winnefeld, General Partner at Rule 1 Ventures. "As the orbital economy matures, the limiting factor shifts from launch to performance. Mantis Space is addressing one of the last unbuilt layers of space infrastructure." The timing reflects a structural shift in the space economy. The first generation of commercialisation centred on connectivity and Earth observation. The next generation includes orbital data centers, edge compute platforms, and persistent intelligence systems that require uninterrupted, high-density power.
"Enduring companies remove systemic constraints," said Philip Krim, Co-Founder and CEO of Montauk Capital. "Shared energy in orbit is a prerequisite for the next phase of commercial and defense expansion in space. We funded Mantis Space to create that foundation." The next era of AI infrastructure will not be confined to Earth. And none of it scales without a reliable power layer beneath it.
Click here to learn more about Power Systems Featured on SATNow
