Sign in

Private company

Capella Space

Logo: capellaspace.com4

American space company

Capella Space is an American satellite manufacturer and operator. Capella was founded in 2016 and in 2020 launched the first American synthetic-aperture radar satellite. Capella is headquartered in San Francisco, California.3 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

Mar 2016Founded1
  • Industryspace industry1
  • HeadquartersSan Francisco, California1
  • Websitewww.capellaspace.com
  • Incorporated inDE5
  • Business address575 7Th Street, San Francisco, Ca 941035

See how the biggest companies compare on our leaderboards

Capella Space image from its website
Image: capellaspace.com4

Capella Space is an American satellite manufacturer and operator. Capella was founded in 2016 and in 2020 launched the first American synthetic-aperture radar satellite. Capella is headquartered in San Francisco, California.3

Corporate structure

Capella Space is part of a group headed by IONQ. 20 entities, 8 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

  • IONQ Lewes, Delaware, United States
    • Capella Space San Francisco, California
    • ID Quantique Inc. Subsidiary · Delaware, United States
    • IonQ Federal, LLC Subsidiary · Delaware, United States
    • IonQ Italia S.r.l. Subsidiary · Italy
    • IonQ Quantum Acquisitions, Inc. Subsidiary · Delaware, United States
    • IonQ Quantum Canada, Inc. Subsidiary · Ontario, Canada
    • IonQ Quantum International GmbH Subsidiary · Germany
    • IonQ Quantum Israel Ltd. Subsidiary · Israel
    • IonQ Quantum Switzerland GmbH Subsidiary · Switzerland
    • IonQ Quantum UK Limited Subsidiary · United Kingdom
    • IonQ Quantum, Inc. Subsidiary · Delaware, United States
    • IonQ Sweden AB Subsidiary · Sweden
    • Lightsynq Technologies, Inc. Subsidiary · Delaware, United States
    • Oxford Ionics DACH GmbH Subsidiary · Switzerland
    • Oxford Ionics Limited Subsidiary · United Kingdom
    • Oxford Ionics North America Inc. Subsidiary · Delaware, United States
    • Seed Innovations, LLC Subsidiary · Delaware, United States
    • Skyloom Global, LLC Subsidiary · Delaware, United States
    • Vector Atomic, Inc. Subsidiary · Delaware, United States

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries listed in Exhibit 21 of annual reports filed with the SEC. Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

The company was founded in 2016 by Payam Banazadeh, a former engineer at Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA, and William Walter Woods. Capella initially received funding from the Defense Innovation Unit. As of January 2024, the company had more than 200 employees and raised venture capital from investors such as Canaan Partners, Data Collective, Pear VC, and Spark Capital.

Capella designs, manufactures and operates its fleet of SAR satellites to provide high-resolution, all-weather imagery to the U.S. government and commercial customers. Sequoia, the first-generation satellite, launched in August 2020. Six second-generation Whitney satellites were launched between January 2021 and January 2022 on SpaceX Transporter rideshare missions into a polar Sun-synchronous orbit.

Capella Space has raised about $250 million in total equity and debt financing since its founding in 2016. In May 2025, IonQ, a quantum computing startup, announced their intent to purchase Capella Space in an all stocks transaction. The acquisition was completed in July 2025.

From Wikipedia’s article on Capella Space, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6

Products and brands

  • satellite imagery

Listed on Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. Mar 2016Founded Founded1

Funding

Where the company's money came from, by calendar year: private offerings filed with the SEC, federal grants, loans, contracts and other assistance from USAspending.gov, and PPP loans from the SBA. Each bar links to the records below.

Money received by year$21.0M 2019–2026
Money received by yearMoney received by year, 2019–2026: $21.0M in all. PPP loans $1.4M; Federal contracts $19.6M.$0$5M$10M$15M2019 · Federal contracts: $849.2K20192020 · PPP loans: $1.4M2021 · Federal contracts: $4.7M20212022 · Federal contracts: $261.4K2023 · Federal contracts: $1.6M20232024 · Federal contracts: $10.3M2025 · Federal contracts: $1.0M20252026 · Federal contracts: $913.3K2026
Without federal contracts$1.4M 2020–2020
Without federal contractsWithout federal contracts, 2020–2020: $1.4M in all. PPP loans $1.4M.$0$500K$1M$1.5M2020 · PPP loans: $1.4M2020
Figures by year
YearPPP loansFederal contractsTotal
2026–$913.3K$913.3K
2025–$1.0M$1.0M
2024–$10.3M$10.3M
2023–$1.6M$1.6M
2022–$261.4K$261.4K
2021–$4.7M$4.7M
2020$1.4M–$1.4M
2019–$849.2K$849.2K

Federal awards

Obligated amounts from USAspending.gov7, by calendar year, 2019–2026, for its registration. Obligations are what agencies committed, not always what was paid out. Contracts pay for goods and services; grants, loans and direct payments are assistance. Loans are charted at the face value of the loans listed here. An award’s amount below is its lifetime total, and some began before the years charted.

Largest contracts

  1. Sep 1, 2024$10.0M from Department of the Air Force: Synthetic aperture radar for government operations (sargo)8 To CAPELLA SPACE CORPORATION Award FA945324CX020
  2. Jun 15, 2021$3.0M from Department of the Air Force: Capella space corporation u.s. commercial synthetic aperture radar (sar) optical inter-satellite link (oisl) to sda tranche 0 transport laye9 To CAPELLA SPACE CORPORATION Award HQ085021C0012
  3. Aug 19, 2021$1.7M from Department of the Air Force: Capella space, space pitch day 202110 To CAPELLA SPACE CORPORATION Award FA881021C0026
  4. Jun 30, 2023$1.5M from National Aeronautics and Space Administration: Commercial smallsat data acquisition (csda) program - high resolution synthetic aperture radar (sar) imagery data products at the usg eula l11 To CAPELLA SPACE CORPORATION Award 80HQTR23FA042
  5. Sep 30, 2026$913.3K from National Aeronautics and Space Administration: Csda program - sar task order12 To CAPELLA SPACE CORPORATION Award 80HQTR26FA088

PPP loans

Paycheck Protection Program loans of $150,000 and up, approved April 2020 to July 2021, from the SBA13. Matched to this company by name and state.

  1. Apr 28, 2020$1.4M PPP loan (first draw) from Silicon Valley Bridge Bank NA13To CAPELLA SPACE CORP., San Francisco CA; $1.4M forgiven Oct 4, 2021

SEC filer profile

How Capella Space is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, from its EDGAR record and the cover page of its latest annual report.

  • Name on EDGARCapella Space Corp.2
  • CIK0001706815
  • Employer ID (EIN)81-25712772
  • Incorporated inDelaware2
  • Fiscal year endsDecember 312
  • Business address575 7Th Street, San Francisco, CA 941032
  • Phone650-521-05422
  • On EDGAR sinceMay 17, 20172
  • Filings4 in all: D (4)2

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
    Company websiteCapella Space logo
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13