Ascend Arc

AscendArc (also written Ascend Arc) is a satellite telecommunications company that develops and manufactures small geostationary (GEO) communications satellites for commercial and military applications. The company positions its satellites as a lower-cost, faster-to-deploy way to add bandwidth capacity, and describes its offering as bandwidth as a service delivered from proprietary geostationary satellite hardware.

The company was founded in 2023 by Chris McLain, previously of SpaceX. It operates as a hardware-intensive, seed-stage venture focused on rapid iteration, with engineering roles spanning satellite systems engineering, communications link and RF payload design, structures, power, thermal, attitude control and telemetry.

Founding story

Founded in 2023 by Chris McLain, a former SpaceX engineer, to address the cost and deployment speed of satellite communications capacity.

Business model

AscendArc develops and manufactures its own small GEO satellite platform and sells the resulting capacity as bandwidth as a service, rather than solely selling hardware.

Bandwidth-as-a-service delivered from the company's own geostationary satellite hardware.

Traction

Reported investor backing from multiple space and regional funds, a partnership with satellite operator KT Sat, and a satellite deal referenced at more than $200 million; staff size listed at 11-50 employees.

Latest developments

An Everywhere Ventures portfolio update dated February 2025 links to coverage of a raise of about $4 million to build small GEO satellites and, under a December 2025 date, to coverage of an AscendArc satellite deal described as exceeding $200 million.