Foundational emerges from stealth with £8.2 million pre-seed round
The London startup uses reflected laser pulses to measure spacecraft positions, with orbit-data products still in development.
Inflection led the financing, joined by BACKED VC, Adjacent, Final Frontier and Type One Ventures. Foundational was founded by Hira Virdee and Dave Gooding to improve the measurements that satellite operators use to understand where spacecraft are and assess collision risks.
Ground stations fire laser pulses at retroreflectors carried by spacecraft. The elapsed time of the returning light provides a range measurement; a network of observations can then support orbit estimates. Foundational combines its own reflector hardware, ground infrastructure and data processing rather than relying only on existing tracking feeds.
Its raw ranging service is operational, while processed orbit products, validation and unique-identification reflectors remain in development. Inflection’s investment thesis links more precise tracking to safer manoeuvre decisions as the number of objects in orbit increases.
What the funding supports
- Expand ground station network
- Vertically integrate space hardware manufacturing
- Scale retroreflector production
- Develop data platform
Foundational
Laser-ranging hardware and orbital data for satellite operators to measure spacecraft positions more precisely and support mission decisions.
Company profile and funding history