Small Satellites Here, There, Everywhere
EnduroSat's Founders Fund Led Series B | Planet Labs Latest Results | Data-as-a-Service | Constellation-as-a-Service | Building Satellites where You Wouldn't Expect
I have been acquainting myself with the topic of small satellites over the past week. AI assistants have really taken down the barriers to acquiring knowledge at depth and breadth previously unimaginable. Another remarkable achievement is that today you can launch a small satellite for something like $50k. While the topic is fascinating in itself, the immediate reason for my interest was Founder Fund's $23M investment in EnduroSat. Here is a Bloomberg Technology interview with Founder and CEO, Raycho Raychev, and Founders Fund Partner, Delian Asparouhov.
Towards the end, Raycho brings up the theme that has been slowly unfolding since COVID shed light on the weak links in global supply chains, which was then picked up by the war in Ukraine, exposing similar weakness and fragmentation amongst NATO allies, and that was made final by the US withdrawal from various of its international capacities. The theme is that of the emerging opportunity and need for strong local players in almost every area. Globalization has to take a step back before it can continue. In my view, this is the time for hidden champions to thrive. I don't know if EnduroSat will emerge as such, but it is definitely an interesting story to follow. So, I decided to get up to speed on satellites.
I have previously looked at other strong local players with the potential to be hidden champions.
Microbix — Canadian antigens and quality assessment products company
Kraken - Canadian underwater sensing and robotics leader, whose synthetic aperture sonar is fundamentally similar to the synthetic aperture radar part of some EnduroSat satellites. The former being used in underwater acoustics, the latter - in electromagnetic remote sensing from space. The synthetic part refers to the use of movement of the sensor platform to simulate a much larger antenna and achieve much higher spatial resolution than with a stationary antenna.
Kaspi and the original post here, aka the Kazakh OS
Brembo — Italian high-performance braking systems
SmartOrganic — a Bulgarian producer of innovative organic food products
Shelly — one of the fastest-growing smart home and IoT brands, also based in Bulgaria
Zillow — the US brand synonymous with real estate search and home valuations
Renishaw — UK high-precision measurement equipment
Remy Cointreau — Cognac
Leroy Seafood — Norwegian salmon
Shimano — Japanese bicycle components leader
Focusrite - renowned British audio technology company
Satellites
The last time I looked at satellites was in 2021 when Planet Labs went public in the heat of the SPAC mania. Unlike other shitcos that went public then, Planet has actual satellites (I hope. Hard to audit.), over 200 of them, which places them as the 5th largest satellite fleet out there (as of 2023).
The field is dynamic and these number can change quickly. For comparison, this source from 2021 paints a somewhat different picture. But in any case, Planet has an impressive fleet of tiny satellites that take pictures of Earth all the time. They also have an impressive library of images of every place on Earth — over 1700, dating back to 2009 — like a Time Machine backup.
In the following, I will take a look at the two companies in parallel. Bear in mind that EnduroSat is still private and the CEO is not exactly the promotional type. Information about the company is very scarce.
Planet Labs & EnduroSat
Planet Labs focuses on providing comprehensive global surveillance through daily satellite imagery, while EnduroSat builds and operates customized satellite solutions for diverse clients. The companies represent two different approaches to the commercial space sector.
“To image the whole world every day and make change visible, accessible, and actionable.”
Planet Labs, founded in 2010 and based in San Francisco, emerged as a pioneer in Earth imaging with the ambitious mission to image the entire Earth every day and make global change visible, accessible, and actionable.
"Space is closer than you think."
EnduroSat was founded five years later in 2015 by Raycho Raychev in Sofia, Bulgaria. Rather than concentrating solely on Earth observation, EnduroSat positioned itself as a comprehensive satellite infrastructure provider with the mission to make space universally accessible.
We’re taking the complexity out of space missions by building and operating the space infrastructure our customers need, so they can focus on the next wave of innovation in space applications.
— Raycho Raychev, CEO & Founder
Business Model & Strategy
Planet Labs operates primarily as a data-as-a-service (DaaS) provider, generating revenue through subscription-based access to its vast archive of Earth imagery and analytics. The company's revenue model is diversified across multiple tiers, with basic subscriptions ranging from $5,000-15,000 annually for limited data access, professional tiers at $25,000-75,000 for enhanced resolution, and enterprise packages commanding $100,000-500,000 for premium services.
Planet Labs' revenue reached $244.4M in fiscal year 2025 (11% YoY). The company serves nearly 1,000 customers globally, with significant revenue streams from government contracts including NASA ($10-20M annually) and DoD contracts ($15-30M annually). Their diversified customer base spans agriculture, forestry, energy, finance, and government agencies, each utilizing Planet's data for actionable insights and informed decision-making.
Planet Labs has established itself as the dominant player in the daily global Earth observation market. The company's unique value proposition lies in its unprecedented Earth coverage, imaging the entire planet's landmass daily — a capability unmatched by competitors. This comprehensive coverage enables applications in precision agriculture, climate monitoring, urban development tracking, and disaster response.
The company's customer base reflects this broad applicability, with significant penetration in agricultural monitoring, environmental analysis, and government surveillance applications. Planet's data processing capabilities are substantial, handling over 7 petabytes of geospatial imagery annually and processing 100,000+ images per day using AI and machine learning technologies. The platform supports integration with major GIS systems and offers 47 distinct API integration endpoints across multiple industries.
EnduroSat operates under a different business model centered on constellation-as-a-service (CaaS). Rather than selling data, EnduroSat provides end-to-end satellite solutions, managing everything from satellite design and manufacturing to launch and operations. This integrated service model enables clients to deploy satellite constellations without developing their own infrastructure, effectively removing the complexity and risk traditionally associated with space missions.
The company's revenue streams include satellite platform sales, custom modules, and ongoing operational services. EnduroSat has delivered over 2,500 space subsystems and over 60 fully integrated smallsat platforms, serving more than 350 customers worldwide. Notable clients include IBM, ESA, DLR, CNES, Airbus, and various universities, demonstrating the broad appeal of their service model across commercial, government, and academic sectors.
Technological Capabilities and Satellite Architecture
Both companies leverage CubeSat technology (more about it later) but for distinctly different purposes and scales. Planet Labs operates one of the largest commercial satellite constellations, with over 200 active satellites in orbit as of 2025. The company's Dove satellites are 3U CubeSats weighing 5-6 kg each, designed specifically for high-resolution Earth imaging. Each Dove satellite captures imagery with 3.7-meter ground sampling distance and can image approximately million square kilometers daily.
Planet Labs has expanded its constellation beyond the basic Dove satellites to include higher resolution SkySat satellites acquired from Google's Terra Bella in 2017. The SkySat constellation provides sub-meter resolution imagery and offers the most frequent intraday revisit capability of any commercial provider, capturing actionable insights 5-7 times per day. Additionally, Planet has introduced Tanager hyperspectral satellites and Pelican high-resolution satellites, demonstrating continuous technological advancement.
EnduroSat takes a more diversified approach to satellite technology, offering modular, software-defined platforms ranging from 1U to 16U CubeSats and recently expanding into larger ESPA-class satellites weighing 200-500kg. The company's flagship Endurance Gen3 platform supports various payloads including hyperspectral imaging, synthetic aperture radar, broadband, and navigation systems, delivering up to 3.5 kW of power and 2 Gbps of data transmission.
The new design philosophy behind Gen3 is especially well-suited for constellations and responsive space applications, because it’s designed from the ground up for fast turnaround and mass production. The cableless satellite bus design, developed entirely in-house, can be assembled and functionally tested in a few hours—orders of magnitude faster than typical satellite builds today. The new Gen3 ESPA-class satellites will complement EnduroSat’s flight-proven line of CubeSat platforms and components.
What distinguishes EnduroSat's technological approach is its emphasis on modularity and customization. The company's platforms are software-defined and in-flight configurable, meaning satellite parameters can be updated in orbit according to customer needs. This plug-and-play architecture on both hardware and software levels provides unprecedented flexibility for diverse mission requirements.
Financial Performance and Growth Trajectories
Planet Labs, as a public company, provides transparent financial reporting that reveals both the opportunities and challenges in the commercial space sector. The company's revenue has grown from $113M in 2021 to $244.4M in 2025, demonstrating moderating growth rates.
However, like many of the companies from its crop, Planet faces profitability challenges and suffers from the SBC sickness ("moderated" to 20% of revenues from a peak of 50%).
The return on this "investment" is yet to prove itself.
On the positive side, it has no debt and still some cash ($222M) in the coffers, buying it time to turn cash-flow positive. Also, remaining performance obligations nearly tripled to $412.8M and backlog more than doubled to $503.7M. The sharp increase was driven by major contract wins, notably a $230M multi-year deal with SKY Perfect JSAT and expanded defense sector contracts. These numbers are a good indication of the strong demand for Planet's services, particularly in government and defense, and positions the company for accelerated revenue growth in coming years.
Planet's financial performance reflects the capital-intensive nature of satellite operations and the challenge of scaling subscription-based space data services. The company has invested heavily in satellite manufacturing and data processing infrastructure while working to optimize operational efficiency.
EnduroSat, while privately held, demonstrates strong growth momentum through its recent funding activities and expansion plans. The company's €43M Series B funding round led by Founders Fund indicates investor confidence in its business model and growth prospects. EnduroSat plans to use this funding to scale production of its Gen3 satellites and expand its CaaS offering, targeting production of up to 60 satellites per month by the end of 2025. This represents a massive ramp up in the company's operations given that it has delivered 100+ satellites to customers and has launched 60+ into orbit in its 10-year history so far.
The company's expansion strategy includes building a new 17,500 m² facility in Sofia, which will become one of the largest space R&D centers in Europe. Additionally, EnduroSat is expanding its US operations with a Denver office and plans for a dedicated US cleanroom to better serve commercial and defense clients.
EnduroSat boasts 70%+ gross margins, compared to Planet Labs' 55%. Of course, the two companies' business models are quite different, as already mentioned. EnduroSat’s higher gross margins align with its hardware-centric business model, where upfront R&D costs are amortized over units sold. Planet Labs’ lower margins reflect the operational costs of maintaining a large satellite constellation and providing analytics services, though margins are improving as the company scales.
Got Moat?
Planet Labs' primary competitive advantage lies in its comprehensive global coverage and data processing capabilities. The company has created what amounts to Time Machine for Earth observation, with an average of 1,700 images of every place on Earth in its archive. This unprecedented dataset enables temporal analysis and change detection that would be impossible with traditional satellite imagery sources.
The company's cost-efficient approach using CubeSats has democratized access to satellite imagery, making high-quality Earth observation data available to smaller organizations and researchers who previously couldn't afford such services. Planet's API integration capabilities and cloud-based platform further reduce barriers to adoption, allowing customers to incorporate satellite imagery into existing workflows seamlessly.
EnduroSat's competitive advantages lie in the modular, software-defined architecture, which provides unprecedented flexibility for mission customization. Unlike traditional satellite manufacturers that offer fixed configurations, EnduroSat's platforms can be reconfigured and updated in orbit, adapting to changing mission requirements. This capability is particularly valuable for research missions and commercial applications that may need to evolve over time.
The Near Future
Both companies are pursuing aggressive expansion strategies, though in different directions. Planet Labs is focusing on developing AI-enabled solutions and expanding its analytics capabilities beyond basic imagery provision. Alongside this, the company is expanding into higher-resolution imaging through its Pelican satellite program and hyperspectral capabilities via the Tanager satellites.
EnduroSat's development of larger ESPA-class satellites represents a significant technological leap that opens new market opportunities in hyperspectral imaging, synthetic aperture radar, broadband communications, and navigation services. This expansion into larger satellites, while maintaining the modular, cost-effective approach, could position EnduroSat to compete in markets traditionally dominated by larger aerospace contractors.
As the number of satellites in space demanded by a broader set of players grows exponentially, our industry needs to re-think how these satellites are built. Raycho and his team at EnduroSat have taken the massive leap to go from utilizing traditional aerospace supply chains, to consumer electronics and automotive supply chains to build their products. Their Gen3 satellites get them into a size class that will allow for almost any space opportunity to be relevant for them.
— Delian Asparouhov, Partner at Founders Fund and President of Varda Space Industries
SmallSats, CubeSats, LotsaSats
For those of you curious to learn a little more about the type of satellites these two companies are focusing on, I am sharing just enough information here to get you going.
As you might have figured already, the type of satellites that are being launched en masse nowadays are quite small. The flavors of small are defined on the NASA website as follows:
Minisatellite — 100-180 kg
Microsatellite — 10-100 kg
Nanosatellite — 1-10 kg
Picosatellite — 0.01-1 kg
Femtosatellite — 0.001-0.01 kg
CubeSat Technology - Small, Standardized Satellites
CubeSats, the ones EnduroSat started with, fall under the nanosatellite category. They represent a transformative approach to space technology, enabling cost-effective access to low Earth orbit and beyond through standardized, modular designs. Basically, these are 10x10x10 cm (= 1U) stackable boxes, weighing 2 kg. They easily scale into larger configurations - 3U, 6U, 12U - while maintaining compatibility with universal deployment systems.
The CubeSat project began in 1999 as a collaborative effort between Prof. Jordi Puig-Suari at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and Prof. Bob Twiggs at Stanford University’s Space Systems Development Laboratory. The original intent was to reduce cost and development time, increase accessibility to space, and sustain frequent launches.
Over 60% of early CubeSats originated from universities, providing hands-on engineering experience. Projects like NASA’s CSLI (CubeSat Launch Initiative) fund student-built satellites for atmospheric studies, technology demonstrations, and biological experiments.
CubeSats follow the CubeSat Design Specification (CDS), which mandates rail-guided deployment mechanisms, material compatibility, and protrusion limits to ensure safe integration with launch vehicles. The P-POD, a spring-loaded dispenser, ejects CubeSats into orbit with minimal spin, relying on standardized rails and deployment switches. Structural integrity is maintained through aluminum alloy frames, often anodized for durability, with modular designs like AAC Clyde Space’s ZAPHOD enabling customizable payload configurations.
A CubeSat’s functionality hinges on six core subsystems:
Electrical Power System (EPS): Solar panels generate ~2–4 W per 1U face, stored in lithium-ion batteries with ~10–20 Wh capacity. Advanced EPS designs incorporate redundancy, fault tolerance, and thermal management to handle extreme temperature fluctuations.
Communication Systems: VHF/UHF or S-band transceivers facilitate data transmission at 1–100 kbps, often using AX.25 protocols. Antenna designs balance gain with deployability, constrained by the CubeSat’s compact form.
Attitude Determination and Control (ADCS): Reaction wheels, magnetorquers, and sun sensors stabilize orientation with ±1° accuracy, critical for Earth observation and communication missions.
Onboard Computer (OBC): 32-bit microcontrollers running real-time operating systems (RTOS) like FreeRTOS manage telemetry, payload operations, and failure recovery.
Thermal Management: Passive coatings and active heaters maintain component temperatures between -40°C and +85°C, preventing battery degradation and sensor malfunction.
Payloads: Custom instruments—ranging from hyperspectral imagers to radiation detectors—occupy 20–50% of the satellite’s volume, prioritizing miniaturization and low power consumption.
Commercial entities leverage CubeSats for Earth observation, IoT connectivity, and climate monitoring. Governments deploy them for disaster response, military reconnaissance, and regulatory compliance, with costs as low as $30-75K per 1U launch via rideshare programs.
NASA’s MarCO mission demonstrated CubeSats’ interplanetary potential, relaying data from the InSight Mars lander in 2018. Future missions target lunar orbit (Lunar Flashlight) and asteroid surveys, utilizing miniaturized propulsion systems like ion thrusters.
The obvious limitations of CubeSats are power, durability, and orbital decay. The limited solar panel area restricts operations to ~30-60 minutes per orbit in sunlight. Commercial-grade electronics risk single-event upsets in high-radiation zones. Finally, most LEO CubeSats deorbit within 1-5 years due to atmospheric drag, complicating long-duration missions.
Over the past decade, CubeSats have transitioned from academic curiosities to indispensable tools for space exploration, driven by cost efficiency (90% cheaper than traditional satellites) and rapid iteration cycles (12–24 months from design to launch). As launch costs decline and capabilities expand, this type of satellite will play a pivotal role in monitoring our strained planet and delivering internet access to any point on it.
ESPA-Class Satellites
ESPA (Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adapter)-class satellites represent a distinct category of small satellites designed to leverage unused mass and volume margins on medium- to heavy-lift rockets. Developed initially for US DoD missions, this class has evolved into a standardized framework for deploying larger secondary payloads compared to CubeSats.
The ESPA ring, a 62”-diameter aluminum structure, serves as both a secondary payload adapter and satellite bus. It provides six standardized ports for mounting satellites, each capable of supporting:
Mass: Up to 700 kg per port (ESPA Grande configuration)
Volume: 42” × 46” × 56” payload envelopes
Mechanical Interface: 24” ports with 36 fastener points (ESPA Grande)
Unlike CubeSats' cube-shaped modules, ESPA-class satellites use radial mounting on the adapter ring, enabling simultaneous deployment of multiple spacecraft while maintaining primary mission priority.
| Parameter | ESPA-Class (e.g, Gen3) | CubeSat (e.g., 3U) |
| -------------- | ---------------------- | ------------------- |
| Typical Mass | 180–700 kg | 4–6 kg |
| Launch Economic| $30-75M | $50-300k |
| Power Gen | 3.5 kW (ESPAStar) | 4–10 W |
| Data Downlink | 1.6 Mbps (encr S-band) | 1–100 kbps (UHF/VHF)|
| Mission Duratio| 2–5 years | 6–24 months |
| Propulsion Cap | Hydrazine thrusters | Cold gas/electric |
| Orbit | GEO/LEO/MEO | LEO |
| Radiation | 25.5 kRad tolerance | Commercial-grade |
| Application | Military, Comms | Research, IoT, Imag |That’s all for today! Until next time.