Former Disney Channel star Brigitte Mendler announced that she is co-founder and CEO of Northwood Space. Northwood Space is a startup that has already raised $6.3 million in funding from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, and others.
After the show, Mendler, known for starring in Disney’s hit series Good Luck Charlie and Wizards of Waverly Place, earned a doctorate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a law degree from Harvard University. I spent my days doing that.
Mendler, 31, will begin a new career in the space industry. CNBC Previously reported.
Mendler shared news about new venture on X On Monday, she told her followers to “expect the unexpected” and revealed “other news.” Subsequent posts: That she adopted a 4-year-old boy.
Northwood’s vision is to become a “data highway between Earth and space,” she told CNBC.
“While space is getting easier in many dimensions, the actual task of sending and receiving data to and from space is still difficult. Finding access points to connect to satellites is difficult.”
Northwood plans to build a satellite ground station that prioritizes rapid production and deployment flexibility.
The ultimate goal is to mass produce ground stations, also known as teleports. It’s a solution to a bottleneck in the space industry where most satellite operators have to wait up to 18 months for antennas to arrive that deliver large amounts of information from satellites. Space, according to CNBC.
El Segundo, California-based Northwood allows customers to quickly rent antennas, similar to the process of renting server capacity from Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure, CNBC reported.
The concept has attracted the attention of venture capital and private equity firms such as Box Group, founded by David Tisch, Olds Capital and Humba Ventures.
Northwood’s name comes from a lake in New Hampshire, where Mendler would “build antennas out of random scraps he found at hardware stores and receive data from them.” [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] According to a report from CNBC, she has been on “satellite” while spending time with her family during the pandemic.
She is co-founding the company with her husband, Northwood Chief Technology Officer Griffin Cleverley, and head of software Shaurya Luthra.
CNBC reports that Northwood plans to conduct its first test with a spacecraft in orbit later this year.
Cleverley and Luthra worked together as engineers at the aerospace company Lockheed Martin, the paper said.
Representatives for Mr. Northwood did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
