SAN FRANCISCO – Sophia Space announced the selection June 22 of an Apex bus for its first orbital computing node.
Pasadena, California-based Sophia plans to demonstrate its Thermal Integrated LEO Edge (TILE) compute module in 2027 in an Apex Nova bus.
After looking at many potential platforms, Sophia selected Apex as its “strategic bus supplier,” Sophia Space CEO Rob DeMillo told SpaceNews.
“We’re bringing computing into orbit where it’s needed most. This isn’t just about faster data. It’s about enabling satellites to make intelligent decisions autonomously, accelerating innovation across defense, commercial space, and Earth observation industries,” DeMillo said in a statement.
Ian Cinnamon, Apex co-founder and CEO, said in a statement, “Sophia’s vision for real-time orbital computing is exactly the kind of mission our Nova platform is designed to support, giving them a reliable, scalable path to bring edge computing capabilities to orbit.”
Accelerating first launch
Sophia Space also is finalizing a $7 million Simple Agreements for Future Equity (SAFE) financing round that will bring the startup’s total funding to $22 million. (Through SAFEs, investors provide capital in exchange for the right to receive equity during a future funding round.) Sophia’s SAFE investors included SparkLabs Group and Evergreen, a network of NVIDIA alumni.
After announcing a $10 million seed round in February, Sophia sought additional funds to accelerate its demonstration mission originally scheduled for early 2028.
“We have some potential customers in our pipeline that would go with us on that demo because they want to test out their applications on our TILEs,” DeMillo said. “There’s a number of vectors from various sides pushing us to do this earlier rather than later.”
Since Sophia was founded in 2023, interest and investment in space-based edge computing have grown dramatically. With the additional funding, Sophia plans to expand its product development and engineering workforces, and establish strategic partnerships to accelerate deployment of the company’s technology in government, commercial and international markets.
Sophia’s pipeline includes customers seeking orbital computing nodes for civil, commercial and defense applications including the Pentagon’s Golden Dome missile-defense initiative, DeMillo said.
“We’re building the backbone for the next era of space-to-space and space-to-Earth infrastructure,” Leon Alkalai, Sophia founder and chief technology officer, said in a statement. “With Apex as a collaborator, satellites become autonomous computing hubs, able to act on data the moment it’s generated.”
