Mantis Space Raises $10 Million Seed to Build Always-On Orbital Power Grid

New updates have been reported about Mantis Space.

Mantis Space has exited stealth with an oversubscribed seed round of more than $10 million to develop an orbital power infrastructure designed to remove satellites’ dependence on direct sunlight for energy. The Albuquerque-based company plans a constellation of spacecraft that remain almost continuously in sunlight and beam power to satellites in eclipse, enabling them to use existing solar arrays to draw power in real time regardless of orbital position.

The round was led by Rule 1 Ventures with participation from Montauk Capital, which incubated Mantis Space, and proceeds will fund hiring and go-to-market expansion from the firm’s new New Mexico headquarters. CEO Eric Truitt, a founder of Terran Orbital and former BlueHalo executive, leads a veteran-heavy team with deep aerospace, defense, and optical engineering experience, positioning Mantis to tackle what it calls one of the last unbuilt layers of space infrastructure.

By decoupling power availability from sun exposure, Mantis Space aims to let customers optimize orbits for mission value rather than energy, potentially boosting satellite utilization and extending asset lifetimes, with management suggesting economic returns could increase two to three times. Today, satellites can spend roughly one-third of their time in Earth’s shadow and are often placed in sun-synchronous orbits that keep them away from core mission areas for much of the day, which depresses revenue and constrains performance as space systems become more compute-intensive.

Advisers and investors frame the opportunity as a foundational layer for the next phase of the orbital economy, which already exceeds $600 billion and is projected to approach $1 trillion by 2040. Admiral James A. Winnefeld Jr. of Rule 1 Ventures and Montauk Capital’s Philip Krim argue that shared, high-density power in orbit is a prerequisite for emerging markets such as orbital data centers, edge compute, and persistent intelligence platforms, as well as future AI infrastructure deployed beyond Earth, making Mantis Space’s grid-like offering strategically significant for commercial and defense stakeholders.