Endeavor Optical Networks (EON), a startup founded in May and emerging from stealth on August 4, 2026, announced $10.75 million in seed funding from General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz to build a network of laser-equipped satellites capable of carrying data between continents at terabit speeds — a potential alternative to the undersea fiber optic cables that currently form the backbone of global internet traffic.
The company, led by CEO Charlie Horowitz and CTO Tyler Presser, aims to address a growing bottleneck for hyperscale cloud providers and AI labs: moving massive amounts of data between data centers spread across the globe. Undersea cables, while capable of carrying data at 200 terabits per second or more, are expensive to install, difficult to repair, and concentrated on a limited number of routes. Radio-based satellite communications lack the bandwidth to serve as a substitute, but recent advances in optical technology have made space-to-ground laser links increasingly viable.
Why lasers from orbit could solve a terrestrial problem
EON’s approach relies on a constellation of about 20 satellites, each providing a dedicated link between two continents. The company plans to place ground stations strategically near data centers and content delivery networks, using redundant sites and weather data to maintain reliable connections despite atmospheric interference — the main technical hurdle for laser communications.
NASA has demonstrated laser communications from the Moon, and private companies including York, Kepler, and Cailabs have shown Earth-orbit-to-ground links, but those efforts targeted throughput of around 2.5 Gbps. EON’s starting goal is 2.4 terabits per second per link, which would put it in the same class as undersea fiber. The company says it will invest in precision components like gimbals for pointing lasers while sourcing off-the-shelf satellite buses from manufacturers such as Apex Space, where Horowitz previously worked as chief of staff to CEO Ian Cinnamon.
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The technical team includes Presser, a PhD astronautical engineer who has planned NASA missions; Michael David Francois, a former Google executive focused on global network infrastructure; and Wesley Baxter, an optics engineer who worked on Amazon’s LEO satellite network. Cinnamon, who invested personally, called Horowitz “a force of nature” who can move from strategy to execution details.
Competition and the road ahead
EON is not alone in pursuing space-based optical data links. Blue Origin has announced TeraWave, a 5,048-satellite network aiming for speeds up to 6 Tbps for large-scale users. That project is more ambitious but will require significantly more time to launch and deploy. EON’s smaller fleet is designed to reach orbit faster, though it will face the same fundamental challenges of pointing accuracy, atmospheric distortion, and meeting the high reliability standards that data center operators demand.
Caleb Henry, director of research at Quilty Space, cautioned that satellite internet is only now transitioning from a technology of last resort to dependable, high-bandwidth infrastructure. “It will be harder and take longer than most entrepreneurs suggest,” he said. General Catalyst partner Jeannette zu Fürstenburg, who led the investment, said the fund’s focus on AI and resilience made EON a natural fit, adding that the main question is execution: “Can you actually get this thing into space in the time that we discussed?”
EON will use the seed funding to build an optics lab, hire engineers, and conduct ground tests ahead of a demonstration satellite targeted for launch around the end of 2027. Horowitz said the company’s guiding principle is to avoid fundamental physics problems: “There’s a market that exists today that we can go serve. More data is moving terrestrially than ever.”
If successful, EON could offer a compelling alternative for routes where undersea cables are impractical or prohibitively expensive, such as Africa-South America links or long-haul paths like France to Australia. The company plans to sell dedicated capacity to customers seeking full control over their data transit, positioning itself as a complement rather than a wholesale replacement to the existing fiber infrastructure.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The satellite communications and data center connectivity markets are volatile and subject to significant technical and operational uncertainties.
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