Insider Brief
- Reflect Orbital has completed a $6.5 million seed funding round led by Sequoia Capital.
- This funding round marks Sequoia’s first space technology investment since SpaceX and included participation from Starship Ventures, Baiju Bhatt, Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, and Keenan Wyrobek.
- Reflect Orbital aims to use this capital to launch its production vehicles and grow a team dedicated to advancing space-based sunlight reflection technology.
Reflect Orbital, a space-tech startup, recently announced the successful completion of its $6.5 million seed funding round led by Sequoia Capital to launch its production vehicles and grow a team dedicated to advancing space-based sunlight reflection technology. Additional investments came from Starship Ventures, Baiju Bhatt, Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, and Keenan Wyrobek. This funding round marks Sequoia’s first space technology investment since SpaceX.
Reflect Orbital’s innovative approach centers around in-space reflectors designed to direct sunlight to Earth, enabling solar farms and large-scale lighting applications to continue operating after sunset. The company’s vision is to provide clean, renewable solar energy at night, addressing a fundamental limitation of traditional solar power systems.
Reflect Orbital has identified three major factors driving its growth. First, the decreasing cost of space launch infrastructure makes access to space more affordable, allowing companies like Reflect Orbital to exist at scale. Second, the solar energy industry is expanding rapidly but faces the critical challenge of energy generation at night. Third, the company believes there is an untapped demand for artificial sunlight after dark, enabling large-scale lighting for various applications.
Reflect Orbital’s technology relies on tensioned thin-film reflectors to capture sunlight in space and direct it to specific locations on Earth. The company argues that this approach is the most efficient way to provide nighttime sunlight while minimizing costs. Reflect Orbital is committed to responsible sunlight allocation, ensuring that reflected sunlight only reaches intended targets and avoiding environmental disruption.
The startup’s rapid progress is underscored by its recent growth. Reflect Orbital has added experts in deployable space structures and optics to its team, relocated to a new facility in Hawthorne, California, and introduced a sneak peek of its lighting service on its new website. The launch of their concept video has garnered significant public attention, with more than 55 million views and 180,000 service applications.
Looking ahead, Reflect Orbital plans to deploy a constellation of satellites capable of mass-reflecting sunlight, with the goal of scaling its technology to provide energy at night on a global level. The company envisions a future of hundreds of launches and large-scale satellite production, driving down costs while expanding its service offerings.
Image credit: Reflect Orbital
Share this article:
