Apolink, a Y-combinator-assisted space technology startup founded by a 19-year-old Indian entrepreneur, raised $4.3 million in a “overregistered” seed round with a $45 million money post money rating, creating a real-time network of low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites.
Startups are tackling the persistent issues of space communication. Satellites frequently travel offline in parts of orbit due to dead zones. Relay satellites and global ground station networks can help reduce this downtime, but only provide partial solutions.
That gap has become important as the space industry evolves. For years, NASA relied on its tracking and data relay satellite (TDRS) system to maintain close contact with satellites in Earth’s orbit. However, in 2022, the agency announced that it would gradually phase out TDR and move to commercial providers for satellite communications. Most of these commercially available systems still focus on Earth’s orbits, either stationary or inward. Formerly known as Bifrost Orbital, Apolink aims to change it by providing a 24/7 connection to LEO satellites with each orbital ring designed to handle 256 users at 9.6kbps.
“Leo has its own advantages,” Apolink founder Onkar Singh Batra said in an exclusive interview. “This is much closer than Earth Stadium. This means it’s much easier to close the link between the customer satellite and our constellations. That’s where we limit our power requirements, and that’s where compatibility comes in as well.”
Apolink’s approach stems from Batra’s early recognition of this connectivity challenge. At the age of 14 in 2020, he became interested in space. In 2022, when he was in 12th grade at the school of defense in Jammu, north of India, he created a satellite system called Inkbe, which appeared as India’s first open source satellite. He also taught engineering students about space ecosystems from 2022-23 as a guest professor at IIT Jammu.
While working on the first satellite system, Batra recognizes the problem with satellite connectivity, realizes that existing solutions do not provide backward compatibility, and requires specific hardware to enable network access in orbit.
According to Batra, the problem remains as all other satellite links (ISLs) are not interoperable and do not comply with the requirements of the Space Development Agency.
“We’ll solve this [through] “Our hybrid RF optical architecture and user terminals, no hardware-independent approach,” he said.
Some startups have tried to deal with the dark zone by building new ground stations. But Batra said the ground station “is very troublesome to work with and we cannot guarantee a 24/7 link.”
“The maximum you can afford is a reliable continuous link to the ground in the window,” he said.
Founded in 2024, the Palo Alto-based startup will resolve the issue with 32 satellite constellations, including lasers and radios, which allow connections to even satellites lacking certain hardware.
Literally meant Apogee-Plus-Link, Apolink aims to provide around 99% uptime and 10-15 seconds of latency. Once the network is established, the latency decreases to another 2-3 seconds.
Companies, including Amazon’s Kuiper and SpaceX’s Starlink, are also building inter-satellite links to address the connectivity issues of satellite customers. However, Batra said that most players with multipurpose constellations are not dedicated to virtual relays, making the bandwidth available to customers limited. Customers will also need to set up optical terminals at the site for connection.
“Other ISL players will focus on the KU/KA band and use optical terminals for the EO image downlink, but that’s not the case,” he told TechCrunch.
The startup has its own FCC license, eliminating the need for customers to meet additional licensing requirements. Additionally, satellite components such as lasers and radio are generated in-house to ensure compatibility with the algorithm.
In the second quarter of 2026, Apolink aims to launch its first demo mission via SpaceX rideshare. This mission will feature Linkone/IPOS, a 3U technology demonstration satellite. It is designed to check backward compatible radio frequency relays in low Earth orbit, Batra says.
A second demonstration featuring two satellites is scheduled for June 2027. In 2028, the startup will develop commercial constellations, with the entire 32 satellite constellations expected to be released in 2029.
Despite being in its early stages, the startup has already secured more than $140 million intent letters from companies in the Earth’s observation, communications and spatial data sector, including AstroDigital, Hubble Network and the Starcatcher Industry.
That new seed round was backed by Y Combinator, 468 Capital, Unshacked Ventures, Rebel Fund, Maiora Ventures, and several angel investors including Laura Crabtree (CEO of Epsilon3), Benjamin Bryant (Co-founder of Pebble Tech), and Kanav Kariya (President of Jang Crypto).
Apolink is from companies including Maxar, Audacy and Astra, with over five years of industry experience and within a 4,000-square-foot R&D facility. The company is currently focusing on spacecraft integration and testing, working with early partners to verify the systems in orbit.
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