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# Kapta Space Raises US$24M to Make Satellite Radar Cheap Enough for Constellations
- URL: https://www.theinvestorsociety.com/kapta-space-raises-us-24m-to-make-satellite-radar-cheap-enough-for-constellations/
- Published: 2026-10-12T23:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-12T22:59:59.000Z
- Author: The Editor

Kapta Space, a Seattle startup that builds radar sensors for satellites, raised a US$24 million Series A led by Washington Harbour Partners, a defense technology investor run by founder and CEO Mina Faltas, GeekWire reported on October 9, 2026\. Bison Ventures co-led the round, joined by MetaVC Partners, MYDA Capital, Entrada Ventures, Aurelia Foundry and Fitz Gate Ventures. MetaVC, a metamaterials fund backed by Bill Gates and former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold, also led Kapta's US$5 million seed. With a US$1.8 million Department of Defense grant, the company has now raised about US$30 million.

Kapta was founded in 2023 by CEO Milton Perque and Adam Bily, both former engineering leaders at radar company Echodyne. Its radar uses metamaterials, engineered surfaces that steer a radar beam electronically instead of with moving parts, in a design it calls MESA. The goal is to spot and keep tracking moving targets on land, at sea and in the air from orbit. The company says it won several classified moving target indication (MTI) contracts earlier this year, without naming customers or values. The new money will go toward scaling manufacturing, qualifying the hardware for spaceflight and preparing a first orbital demonstration.

## Market Context

Militaries already use space radar, but the satellites are expensive, so there are few of them and they pass over a given spot only now and then. Tracking a moving vehicle or ship requires many satellites watching all the time. Kapta's pitch is that its radar costs less, uses less power and is simpler to build than conventional electronically steered arrays, known as AESA, which would make it practical to put on large constellations. Those claims come from the company and have not been tested in orbit.

The timing follows growing U.S. investment in this mission. The Space Force has been building a space-based ground moving target indicator program, which Breaking Defense reported in September has Northrop Grumman as its prime contractor. Washington Harbour Partners ranked sixth among defense technology investors in the 2026 Silicon Valley Defense Group NatSec100 report, a sign of how much venture money is now flowing into defense hardware.

## Key Signal

> "Traditional architectures are cost-prohibitive and were never designed for the scale these missions now demand." Milton Perque, Founder and CEO, Kapta Space

## Regional Relevance

For the United States, Kapta fits a broader push to move military tracking from a few large, costly satellites to many cheaper ones. If radar payloads can be built like commercial electronics, the Pentagon gets more coverage per dollar, and it gets another domestic supplier for a capability that has been concentrated in a handful of large contractors.

For Seattle, the round adds to the region's position in space hardware and in metamaterials in particular. MetaVC's backers, Gates and Myhrvold, are tied to the area's tech history, and Kapta's founders came out of the local radar industry. The company is building its manufacturing in a region that already has space suppliers and an engineering workforce used to hardware.

## The Other Side

**What do the classified contracts actually prove?** Kapta has not disclosed who the customers are, how large the contracts are or what they require. Classified work can range from small study contracts to production orders, and outsiders cannot tell which this is.

**Will the radar work in space?** Kapta has not launched hardware. Flight qualification and the first orbital test are still ahead, and moving from a lab design to a reliable payload is where many space startups run short of time and money.

**Can a startup win against defense primes?** Large contractors already hold the main space tracking programs. Kapta's path likely runs through supplying parts to those primes or to smaller satellite operators, which could limit how much of the value it keeps.

## Sources & Transparency

- [Satellite radar tech startup Kapta Space raises $24M, including cash from Bill Gates-backed fund](https://geekwire.com/2026/satellite-radar-tech-startup-kapta-space-raises-24m-including-cash-from-bill-gates-backed-fund/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com)
- [Kapta Space raises $24M to scale radar payloads for classified tracking missions](https://runtimewire.com/article/kapta-space-24m-series-a-classified-radar-contracts?ref=theinvestorsociety.com)
- [Kapta Space Secures $24 Million Series A to Scale Spaceborne Radar for MTI Missions](https://www.tipranks.com/news/private-companies/kapta-space-secures-24-million-series-a-to-scale-spaceborne-radar-for-mti-missions?ref=theinvestorsociety.com)
- [Kapta Space Raises $24 Million Series A Led By Washington Harbour Partners](https://pulse2.com/kapta-space-raises-24-million-series-a-led-by-washington-harbour-partners/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com)
- [Kapta Space Secures $24 Million Series A for Radar Payload Expansion](https://finscans.com/news/2026/10/09/kapta-space-secures-24-million-series-a-for-radar-payload?ref=theinvestorsociety.com)