Mandala Space Ventures is proud to announce that Sophia Space, a company incubated and created by Mandala in 2023, has successfully closed a $10 million Seed round, bringing total funds raised to date to $13.5 million, to accelerate the development of its orbital edge computing platform.
Sophia Space was founded by Dr. Leon Alkalai, founder of Mandala Space Ventures and retired NASA/JPL Fellow, with the vision of building scalable, space-based computing infrastructure designed specifically for the space environments in Lower Earth Orbit. The company’s modular, solar-powered, and passively cooled systems are engineered to enable low-latency, AI-optimized compute capabilities directly in space.
The seed round was led by Alpha Funds, KDDI Green Partners Fund, and Unlock Venture Partners, with participation from Mandala Space Ventures via its venture capital arm. The funding will accelerate development of Sophia Space’s proprietary thermal technology, expand its engineering team, and advance its modular TILE platform toward operational deployment.
“Sophia Space represents exactly the type of deep-tech company Mandala was built to create and support,” said Dr. Leon Alkalai. “Orbital computing is foundational to the future of space infrastructure, enabling real-time AI processing, reducing bandwidth constraints, and strengthening both commercial and national security missions.”
By processing data where it is generated, Sophia Space’s architecture reduces latency and bandwidth demands while enabling real-time decision-making for defense, and disaster response. Direct applications include Earth observation real-time processing, maritime intelligence, critical infrastructure monitoring, space-to-space data services, and much more.
Sophia Space’s progress reflects Mandala’s broader incubation strategy: identify high-impact space technologies, assemble world-class teams, and build mission-driven companies from concept to market readiness.
Initial development milestones are underway as the company scales its modular TILE platform and expands strategic partnerships across the emerging orbital computing ecosystem.
Mandala congratulates the Sophia Space team on this incredible milestone and looks forward to supporting its continued growth.
Visit https://sophia.space to learn more.
Media Contact:
Brian Monnin, bmonnin@sophia.space |
Emma Way, emma@mandalaspaceventures.com
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