Kapta Space raises $24 million to build satellite radar payloads

Seattle space startup Kapta Space raised $24 million in Series A funding on October 9, 2026, to scale the production of moving target radar payloads for defense intelligence missions.

Washington Harbour Partners and Bison Ventures co-led the funding round, according to Payload. Additional participants included MetaVC Partners, MYDA Advisors, Entrada Ventures, Aurelia Foundry, and Fitz Gate Ventures.

The capital injection brings the company's total funding to $30 million since its founding in 2022 by Chief Executive Officer Milton Perque and Adam Bily. Kapta Space previously raised $5 million in seed capital and received a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense.

Manufacturing and Mission Plans

Kapta Space designs low-cost moving target indication radar payloads for satellites. The new funds will support payload manufacturing for classified defense missions secured earlier this year, along with two demonstration flight missions expected in the next 24 to 36 months.

"We are executing on two high-profile demo missions that will lead to highly proliferated MTI missions in the future," Perque told Payload.

The U.S. government purchases space-based intelligence data across optical, thermal, hyperspectral, and synthetic aperture radar mediums. However, space-based radar has historically faced high cost and complexity constraints that prevented wide deployment across orbital fleets.

Perque told Payload that spaceborne radar has historically been too expensive to deploy in the quantities required for operational concepts, but said the startup's proprietary architecture changes the economics and scalability of orbital radar.

Kapta Space's architecture uses a new electronic steering design to maintain target custody across land, air, and sea. The company said its payloads operate with lower cost, power, and complexity than active electronically scanned arrays, enabling missile tracking during mid-course flight phases where ground sensors struggle.

The radar payloads feature a modular structure, allowing satellite operators to run simplified synthetic aperture radar technology in smaller form factors.