EDGX closes €2.3m funding to boost AI compute for satellites

The space comms industry has accelerated recently, but the industry could be hitting a fundamental bottleneck in terms of dealing with increasingly massive amounts of data with outdated “store and forward” architectures. To address this issue, Belgian space tech startup EDGX has received a huge boost after closing a €2.3m seed funding round to accelerate commercialisation of Sterna its edge AI computer for satellites product.

Sterna Computer is a high-performance data processing unit (DPU) powered by NVIDIA technology. It is designed to provide the computational performance and AI acceleration needed to run complex algorithms directly in orbit. This capability is designed to eliminate the traditional bottleneck of sending massive raw datasets to Earth for processing, enabling satellite operators to deliver faster, more efficient and data-driven services.

The unit is driven by its SpaceFeather software stack, built for autonomous, resilient and upgradeable satellite operations. It includes a space-tested Linux OS with traceability, a dedicated supervisory system for autonomous health monitoring, radiation fault detection and recovery and an in-orbit application framework for deploying new capabilities post-launch. EDGX said that, working together, SpaceFeather and Sterna enable smarter, more flexible missions with reduced downtime and lower operating costs.

Customers are using EDGX’s Sterna DPU and accompanying SpaceFeather software for a variety of use cases. For spectrum monitoring, Sterna enables in-orbit processing to locate and classify radio signals and generate dynamic spectrum maps, helping operators understand how frequencies are used in real time, avoid interference and allocate bandwidth more efficiently to deliver optimal communication services.

In Earth observation, Sterna supports intelligent surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) by analysing high-resolution imagery directly onboard. This means satellites can immediately detect and flag objects such as ships, vehicles or infrastructure, and respond to time-sensitive events such as floods, wildfires or earthquakes. The result is said to be faster decisions, more efficient missions and life-saving intelligence turning passive observation into real-time situational awareness.

Sterna also enables 5G and 6G from orbit. By moving base station processing capabilities to space, such as onboard gNodeB, it enables satellites to participate directly in next-generation mobile networks. This paves the way for seamless direct-to-device connectivity, delivering high-speed internet to remote, underserved or disaster-affected areas where traditional infrastructure falls short.

EDGX has also closed a multi-unit deal with a satellite operator worth €1.1m and can already announce plans of an in-orbit demonstration on a SpaceX Falcon 9 mission in February 2026. In addition, two further flights are already scheduled for 2026.

The funding round was co-led by the imec.istart future fund and, with participation from the Flanders Future Tech Fund, managed by the Flemish investment company PMV. EDGX has also attracted further funding from existing investor imec.istart, Europe’s university-affiliated accelerator.

Commenting on his company’s participation in the funding, Roald Borré, head of venture capital and member of the executive committee at PMV, said: “This round of financing will enable us to support EDGX’s strong team in bringing promising Flemish technology to market and developing it further.

“EDGX is one of the few European players to offer a product that is high-performance, accessible and robust, giving it unique advantages in the fast-growing market for edge computing in space, not least in terms of strengthening Europe’s technological position in a strategic sector such as space infrastructure.”

Kris Vandenberk, managing partner at imec.istart future fund, added: “EDGX represents exactly the kind of transformative infrastructure play we look for. EDGX is solving [the fundamental bottleneck issue] by bringing AI-powered edge computing directly into space, enabling satellites to analyse and act on data in real-time rather than waiting for ground processing.”