Endeavor Optical Networks, or EON, is making a direct bet on one of the internet economy’s harder infrastructure problems: moving enormous amounts of data between continents without relying only on undersea fiberoptic cables.
The startup, founded in May and emerging from stealth today, has raised $10.75 million in seed funding from General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz. Its plan is to use laser-equipped spacecraft to link data centers from orbit.
Why data movement is becoming the bottleneck
Hyperscalers are building data centers around the world, and those facilities need to exchange data constantly. Much of that movement depends on undersea fiberoptic cables that cross oceans and connect regions.
Those cables can carry enormous volumes of traffic, but the source describes them as a somewhat brittle network. They are also difficult to install, access, and repair, which matters when data center operators need resilient routes between major regions.
Wireless alternatives are not simple substitutes. Radio transmissions do not offer the needed bandwidth, which limits most ground-based or orbital wireless approaches for this use case.
That is where EON sees an opening. The company is focused on optical communications, using lasers rather than radio to move data between space and Earth.
The laser network EON wants to build
EON’s co-founders, CEO Charlie Horowitz and CTO Tyler Presser, want to launch a satellite network built for dedicated data center links. The initial idea is not consumer broadband, but high-capacity connectivity for organizations that move unusually large amounts of data.
Most satellite communications networks are not built to carry traffic at 200 terabits a second or more, the speed associated with undersea fiber. EON’s first target is far below that fiber benchmark but still far beyond prior examples cited in the source: throughput of 2.4 terabits a second.
The company plans a network of about 20 satellites. Each satellite would be able to provide a dedicated link between two continents, and the initial fleet is intended to provide 24 hour coverage for early customers.
Ground infrastructure is a major part of the design. EON plans to choose ground stations in different regions to serve local data centers and CDNs, use redundant sites, and rely on weather data to help keep links available.
The technical challenge is the atmosphere
Laser communication has already moved beyond theory. NASA used laser comms to send data back from its most recent Moon mission, and private space companies including York, Kepler, and Cailabs have demonstrated links between Earth orbit and the ground.
Those demonstrated links aimed for 2.5 Gbps. EON’s starting goal of 2.4 terabits a second is much larger, which is why the company will need its own technical approach.
The core problem is that a laser signal can be distorted as it moves through the atmosphere. Clouds are a particular issue because they can block the path between satellite and ground station.
EON’s answer, based on the source, combines technical work on the optical link with network design. Redundant ground sites and weather-aware routing are meant to help the system maintain reliable service even when conditions change.
Who might buy this capacity
EON is talking to hyperscalers and AI labs as potential customers. The reason is straightforward: they move more data than anyone else, and dedicated capacity could appeal to customers that want control over how their data travels.
The company is focused on routes that are underserved or expensive. Examples in the source include lengthy routes such as France to Australia and routes without extensive existing infrastructure, such as between Africa and South America.
Its commercial pitch is built around dedicated capacity. That is different from shared consumer internet service and is aimed at customers that treat data transit as strategic infrastructure.
What happens next
EON plans to use its seed funding to build an optics lab, hire more engineers, and conduct ground tests. The company hopes to launch a demo satellite around the end of 2027.
Horowitz expects that demo spacecraft to offer at least 800 gigs and perhaps a terabit of optical downlink throughput, which the source says would be the highest optical downlink throughput yet seen.
The engineering plan is selective. EON will focus on producing the optical communications terminal and spend carefully on components that need high precision, including the gimbals that point the laser. For the satellite bus, the company plans to buy powerful off-the-shelf systems, including those made by Apex Space, where Horowitz previously worked.
The team includes Michael David Francois, a long-time Google executive focused on global network infrastructure, and Wesley Baxter, an optics engineer who most recently worked on Amazon’s LEO satellite network. Pressler is described as a PhD astronautical engineer who has planned frontier missions for NASA.
EON is not alone. Blue Origin has announced TeraWave, a 5,048 satellite network intended to provide speeds of up to 6 Tbps to large-scale users. The source describes Blue Origin’s plan as more ambitious, while noting that EON’s smaller fleet should be easier to get into space quickly.
The open question is execution. Data centers have high expectations for quality and redundancy, and satellite internet is only now moving from a fallback technology toward dependable, high-bandwidth infrastructure. EON’s bet is that laser satellites can serve a data movement problem that already exists, while avoiding the harder idea of putting the data centers themselves in space.