Slingshot Aerospace closes $5 million in seed funding to accelerate development of geospatial intelligence and space situational awareness platform

Slingshot Aerospace, an analytics and AI startup that is building a next generation of satellite, aerial, and drone signal processing AI and analytics capabilities, has raised $5 million in new seed funding. The round was led by ATX Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm which recently  rebranded as ATX Venture Partners, with participation from new investor Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund.

Founded in 2016 by David Godwin, Melanie Stricklan, and Thomas Ashman, the Austin, TX, and El Segundo, CA-based Slingshot is a leader in providing the next generation of signal processing AI. Their solutions and geospatial insights allow customers worldwide to make valuable decisions utilizing Earth Observation data, the world’s largest untapped data source, and other ancillary data sources. The company aims to significantly improve the value of data their customers consume, allowing them to gain competitive advantage, reduce risk and reduce costs. Their solutions are tailored to drive deep into specific industries, powered by a flexible, distributed data platform.

“Slingshot is on the cutting edge of applying AI, ML and big data analytics to geospatial and orbital exploration at a time when insights are more needed than ever,” said Colin Greenspon, Partner at Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. “The company is another great example of a company finding advantages in scaling outside of Silicon Valley, and we look forward to supporting them as government and defense and other arenas apply their technologies.”

Slingshot Aerospace, which has raised $9.1M total to date, including this round of seed funding, will use the capital to accelerate the company’s product development and hire key talent in finance, business development and software engineering/data sciences. The company’s mission is to help government and commercial customers predict the unexpected and optimize their situational awareness by leveraging machine learning for geospatial intelligence and space situational awareness. Customers include BAE Systems, Boeing, NASA and the U.S. Air Force.

“Together, we created Slingshot to bring decision makers more complete and timely awareness in the orbital and geospatial arenas,” said David Godwin, CEO and Co-Founder of Slingshot Aerospace. “The market opportunity for Slingshot is vast, as we have become a leader in AI-driven space tech products across multiple domains – closing the gap between data analysis and critical decision making.”

Slingshot Aerospace was co-founded in 2016 by serial entrepreneur David Godwin, CEO, and former Air Force Officers Melanie Stricklan, Chief Strategy Officer, and Thomas Ashman, Chief Product Officer. The company’s product offerings include Orbital Atlas, a space situational awareness platform; Earth Portal, a geospatial visualization portal; and N2X, an edge-AI framework for drones and spacecraft.

“In bringing together disparate signals and using deep learning to speed up time-sensitive detections, both terrestrial and in orbit, we are continually discovering new ways to predict the unexpected and empower our commercial and defense customers with advanced analytics,” said Melanie Stricklan, CSO and Co-Founder of Slingshot. “It’s extremely rewarding to know that we have started to fulfill our mission and attract the highest caliber talent who share this passion.”

The company recently hired a new Vice President of Finance, Tom Inman, and a new Vice President of Technology, Dean Teffer, among other software engineering and strategic business development hires.

“As follow-on investors in Slingshot, we believe they will become the leaders in geospatial AI and edge technologies to make a true difference in our world,” said Chris Shonk, Managing Partner at ATX Venture Partners. “There is no better combination of people than Slingshot’s founders to commercialize this frontier technology. From leaders in the military with expertise on geospatial and orbital applications, to a proven serial entrepreneur and strategist on bringing products to market, this team is positioned to propel the company forward beyond our wildest imagination.”