Proteus Space
An AI-powered automated satellite design and manufacturing company that creates custom, payload-tailored satellite buses through its MERCURY™ platform, eliminating the constraints of standardized spacecraft buses.
- CEO / Founder
- David Kervin
- Team Size
- 11-50
- Stage
- Active
- Total Funding
- $14.75M
- Latest Round
- Seed
- Key Investors
- Lavrock Ventures, Moonshots Capital, SAIC, The Veteran Fund, Crosscut Ventures
Technology & Products
Key Products
["MERCURY™ AI-enabled Automated Satellite Design Platform","Custom Payload-Tailored Satellite Bus Design & Manufacturing","Full Lifecycle Services (Design, AI&T, Launch Integration, LEOPs, Operations)","Digital Engineering Models & Parametric B-Rep CAD Packages","Launch Brokering & Licensing Services","Comprehensive Environmental Testing & Qualification","Orbital Demonstration & Testing Services (validated with NASA JPL JACC mechanism)"]
Technological Advantage
Combines AI-enabled deterministic physics-anchored multi-objective concurrent engineering with Industry 4.0 digital/physical twin system; autonomously selects components and vendors based on TRL level, lead times, cost, and performance specifications; delivers verified parametric B-Rep CAD and digital engineering models 1000x faster design exploration, 8x faster to CDR, 24x less labor, 90% fewer meetings than traditional approaches; leverages additive manufacturing with titanium and multi-material components to reduce part count by 3x
Differentiation
Value Proposition
Reduces satellite development lifecycle from years to months through AI-automated custom satellite bus design; eliminates standardized bus constraints by designing around payload requirements; delivers 8x faster CDR, 24x less labor, and 1000x more design options with full visibility into BOM, cost, schedule, lead times, and supply chain
How They Differentiate
Proteus Space's MERCURY™ platform is the world's first high-fidelity, physics-based, AI-enabled, deterministic satellite design platform that eliminates the ICD (Interface Control Document) constraint by designing custom satellite buses around payloads rather than forcing payloads to fit standardized buses, using the largest TRL9 flight heritage COTS spacecraft component database
Market & Competition
Target Customers
U.S. Government agencies (DoD, NASA, SpaceWERX, AFRL), commercial satellite operators, payload owners requiring custom satellite bus solutions, aerospace primes
Industry Verticals
["Aerospace & Defense","Government/DoD","Space & Satellite Systems","Earth Observation","Deep Space Exploration","National Security Space"]
Competitors
Cognitive Space; Rocket Lab; Sidus Space
Growth & Milestones
Growth Metrics
Successfully designed and launched first AI-designed satellite (MERCURY ONE) in 9 months from blank sheet to orbit; achieved 8x faster CDR, 24x less labor, and 1000x more design options compared to traditional approaches; secured first commercial payload customer in March 2025
Major Milestones
["Successfully launched M1 ESPA-class satellite in 9 months from design to orbit (2024)","Deployed NASA JPL's first additively manufactured mechanism (JACC) aboard Proteus satellite (2024)","Secured $4.2M Seed round led by Moonshots Capital (Oct 2023)","Won $1.8M AFWERX STTR contract for automated satellite design (Dec 2023)","Raised $6.1M Seed-2 round led by Lavrock Ventures (Mar 2025)","Signed first commercial payload customer (Mar 2025)"]
Notable Customers
NASA JPL (ongoing orbital demonstration collaboration); NASA (selected for Rapid Spacecraft Conceptual Design Study, September 2025); Leonardo DRS; UC Davis; SpaceWERX/AFWERX; Air Force Research Laboratory; GomSpace North America