Ready or not, Bridgit Mendler is aiming to disrupt the space industry.
On Monday, the former Disney TV star and pop singer announced that she co-founded Northwood Space, a startup that aims to quickly and reliably bring satellite data from space to Earth.
“Vision is a data highway between Earth and space,” Mendler said CNBC.
According to Northwood Space websitethe company is creating infrastructure to “accelerate the mass adoption of satellite technology.”
Bridget Mendler. Mike Coppola | Getty Images for Save The Children
Mendler, who is serving as CEO of Northwood, says that gathering data from space it's getting easier along so many different dimensions but that the actual exercise of sending data to and from space is difficult.
“You have difficulty finding an access point to contact your satellite,” she told the media.
CONNECTED: Elon Musk Is Moving SpaceX Incorporation To Texas – Here's Why
Northwood is tackling this problem by turning to ground stations, which are the antennas that receive data from satellites, and trying to mass-produce them. The company wants to build ground stations quickly, in days, not months, so that space companies don't have to build their own or wait over a year to install and build the antenna.
Just as companies rent server space from Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure to avoid the high price associated with building their own servers, businesses would turn to Northwood to get data from the space without owning or building the stations. their earthly.
“To me, the reason the terrestrial part matters is because it's really about bringing the impacts of space home to people,” Mendler told CNBC.
Connected: Every company has the potential to enter the space economy. Here's how.
Mendler first rose to fame as a singer — her 1996 Fugees classic “Ready or Not” has 225 million views on YouTube to date — and starring in Disney Channel shows like “Good Luck, Charlie” from 2010 to 2014 and “Wizards of Waverly Place” from 2009 to 2012.
Post-Disney career, that won a Bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California in 2016 and a Master's degree from MIT in 2020. From 2020 to 2024, she was working toward a Ph.D. from MIT and a JD from Harvard Law School, according to her LinkedIn.
Mendler co-founded Northwood Space with her husband, Griffin Cleverly, who serves as chief technology officer, and Shaurya Luthra, head of software. The team has already raised $6.3 million in seed funding from venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund and plans a first test of its technology later this year.