Commercial aerospace optical remote sensing payload research and development manufacturer Interstellar Optics (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Interstellar Optics") officially announced that it has completed a multi million yuan angel round financing led by Yida Capital and Yihua Capital, and co invested by Kunshi Capital. This round of financing will mainly be used for the construction of the Nanjing R&D production base (and ultra clean laboratory) and the company's cash flow supplement, injecting strong momentum into the large-scale production and cutting-edge technology research and development of the company's advanced optical remote sensing payload.
1、 Financing assistance, opening a new chapter in commercial aerospace remote sensing
In the booming development of the commercial aerospace industry, the keen sense of the capital market always points to the most core and technologically challenging links in the industry chain. The joint investment of well-known institutions in this round by Interstellar Light Remote fully demonstrates the high recognition of the market for its technological strength, team background, and development strategy.
The successful completion of this round of financing is an important milestone in the development process of Interstellar Optoelectronics. It is not only a recognition of our past technological accumulation, but also a trust in our future business prospects. This funding will enable us to quickly transform the cutting-edge technology of the laboratory into reliable products that can serve the national strategy and commercial market. The construction of the Nanjing base will be fully accelerated as a result, and our productization and commercialization process will enter a new stage
2、 Technology as the core, creating a high barrier 'moat'
Since its establishment in early 2025, Interstellar Remote Sensing has always focused on one of the highest technological barriers in the commercial aerospace industry chain - the development of optical remote sensing payloads. The company has clearly proposed a technology strategy with "ultra-high resolution, intelligent multimodal, and ultra clear image quality assurance certificate" as its three core technologies, and has built a full process, closed-loop R&D and production capability from optical design, simulation analysis, precision machinery, thermal control management to system integration, assembly and testing. At present, the company has the ability to produce dozens of standardized and shelf style spatial optical remote sensing cameras, which can flexibly respond to diverse market demands.
The competition of enterprises ultimately boils down to the competition of talents. The core competitiveness of Starlight Remote is rooted in its top-notch technical team, which can be regarded as a "national team" level. The core members of the company are all from top domestic aerospace systems and national research institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is a team with an average of over 10 years of engineering experience in the development of integrated remote sensing payloads. Founder Chen Jianpeng and his core founding team not only have a strong foundation in scientific research, but also have successful experience in industrialization and entrepreneurship, ensuring that the company has both technological foresight and market sensitivity from its inception.
At present, Interstellar Light Remote has an elite team of about 30 people, with over 80% of them having a master's degree or above. Their expertise covers all key technical directions such as optics, mechanics, electronics, thermal control, software and algorithms. The strong research and development capabilities have been transformed into solid intellectual property barriers. The company has currently applied for more than 20 core technology patents, covering key areas such as advanced optical and mechanical structures, innovative assembly and adjustment processes, and in orbit intelligent processing, ensuring independent and controllable technology.
It is precisely based on such a profound technological accumulation that interstellar optical remote sensing has become the first private enterprise in China to complete the delivery of "sub meter level" optical remote sensing payloads. The company now has the highest resolution of 0.25m@500Km The R&D capability of the full-color multispectral remote sensing camera, with a complete product line covering different resolution levels such as 0.25m~50m, always adheres to the lean manufacturing concept of "easy to use, user-friendly, and affordable", committed to making high-resolution remote sensing data with high cost-effectiveness benefit a wider range of industry applications.
3、 Forward looking layout, dual wheel drive expands unlimited applications
While consolidating traditional Earth observation services, interstellar optical remote technology has a forward-looking strategic vision and entered the field of space situational awareness, which has significant strategic significance. With the intensive deployment of giant constellations such as SpaceX Starlink and China Star Network in low Earth orbit, there are over 36500 trackable space debris larger than 10 centimeters in size in space, and the risk of collisions has surged, posing a serious threat to China's trillions of in orbit space assets.
Facing this major national demand pain point, Interstellar Light Remote has successfully developed a space situational awareness payload through independent innovation. Its core technology relies on the company's proprietary intellectual property of "Space based High Sensitivity Space Situation Awareness Technology", which innovatively combines a large field of view low distortion optical system with a high-precision two-dimensional pointing mechanism to achieve efficient sky survey of vast airspace; Through the comprehensive guarantee of high-precision optomechanics, high-quality installation and adjustment, low-noise detectors, and high-precision thermal control, ultra-high sensitivity detection of dark and weak space debris has been achieved; By utilizing high-precision sub-pixel positioning technology for targets in complex backgrounds, as well as deep learning based analysis of target motion characteristics and orbit calculation algorithms, real-time detection, precise positioning, and collision warning of space debris have been achieved.
This layout, together with the company's traditional high-resolution Earth observation product line, constitutes a strategic pattern driven by the dual wheels of "looking up at the stars" and "overlooking the earth" in interstellar light remote sensing, greatly expanding the company's technological moat and market boundaries.
In the process of productization, Interstellar Light Remote is transforming its technological advantages into market recognized products at an astonishing speed:
In October 2024, two 0.75-meter resolution optical remote sensing payloads were successfully delivered.
The first high-resolution optical remote sensing payload with a resolution of 0.5m will be validated in orbit in the first half of 2026.
The development of a more challenging and iconic 0.25m resolution ultra-high resolution optical remote sensing payload has also been fully launched, representing the determination of interstellar optical remote sensing as a technology driven enterprise to challenge the development of the "crown jewel" of optical remote sensing payloads.
The successful development of the space situational awareness payload marks the company's ability to provide core equipment for maintaining space security.
The multi-dimensional product layout ensures that Starlight Remote has strong revenue potential in both product capabilities and future production capacity. The market performance in 2026 is widely expected to be a starting point for the company's leapfrog development.
4、 Settling in Nanjing, building a strategic highland for industrialization
The grand blueprint of the enterprise requires a solid industrialization base as support. As a key milestone in the national strategic layout, Interstellar Guangyao has established a wholly-owned subsidiary, Interstellar Guangyao (Nanjing) Technology Co., Ltd., in the national level new area of Jiangbei New Area in Nanjing this year, and has launched the construction of an industrialization base integrating research and development, production, and testing.
At the signing ceremony of the World Young Scientists Forum (Nanjing), Chen Jianpeng, the chairman of the company, deeply expounded on this strategic decision: "Choosing Nanjing Jiangbei New Area as the core pivot of our industrialization layout is a carefully considered strategic decision. The excellent location advantages, first-class policy system for future industries, and abundant high-end talent resources of Jiangbei New Area are highly compatible with the development needs of Interstellar Optics and Remote Technology, which pursues excellence and aspires to lead. What we are building here is not just a conventional production factory, but will be the East China Innovation Headquarters and Advanced Manufacturing Center that drives our future development. We will rely on this platform to deeply integrate cutting-edge research and development with precision manufacturing, accelerate technological iteration and product transformation, and ensure that the company always stands at the forefront of commercial remote sensing payload technology. ”
The completion of the Nanjing base will greatly enhance the technological engineering and mass delivery capabilities of Interstellar Light Remote, providing the most solid backend support for its competition in the national and even global markets.
5、 Capital favors, authoritative evaluation confirms enterprise value
This round of financing has received joint support from top investment institutions in the market, whose professional judgment indirectly confirms the enormous potential and industry value of Starlight Remote.
In recent years, the development of the commercial remote sensing satellite industry has entered a fast lane, with a rapid increase in the number of satellites and a booming growth trend in the satellite application industry. Previously, China relied heavily on imports for high-resolution data at the sub meter level. In this situation, the demand for independently controllable high-resolution remote sensing cameras in the country will become more urgent. The development of optical remote sensing cameras is the most difficult to commercialize due to its high accuracy, design difficulty, and dependence on experience in installation and adjustment. The future remote sensing market is huge, and there is still a huge gap in domestic production capacity before the demand is released. The company's team has rich industry experience, and core members have more than 15 years of experience in aerospace and related fields. We are optimistic that the company will grow into a benchmark enterprise in the field of commercial remote sensing payloads. The sentence is:
Yihua Capital, the joint lead investor, believes that it is an honor to participate in this round of financing as the angel wheel lead investor of Interstellar Optical Remote Sensing. With the rapid reduction of domestic commercial space launch costs and the sharp increase in demand for remote sensing information, remote sensing satellites are expected to become the next breakthrough point in commercial space. Interstellar Optical Remote Sensing has a rare construction team in China that can independently research, develop, produce, and sell high-resolution optical payloads, and is also the only two commercial space enterprises in China with experience in delivering sub meter level optical payloads. Through decades of technological accumulation, the team has achieved an impossible triangle of low cost, low weight, and high imaging quality for high-resolution remote sensing payloads. We believe that Interstellar Optical Remote Sensing is a new force that can make important contributions to China's commercial space industry. Strength
With the continuous development of commercial aerospace and artificial intelligence fields, the demand for high-resolution, high-frequency, and quantitative remote sensing data is becoming increasingly prominent. As a leading enterprise in China that focuses on the core payload of remote sensing satellites - remote sensing cameras, Interstellar Aerospace Remote Sensing has the ability to complete the entire industry chain from optical design, manufacturing and installation to engineering. The core members of the team come from well-known aerospace institutes at home and abroad and have deep technical accumulation in the field of remote sensing payloads. The company innovatively achieves the integration of high resolution, lightweight, intelligence, and low cost, significantly improving the quality, application scenarios, and application value of remote sensing data
Conclusion: The Milky Way stretches for thousands of miles, marking the beginning of our journey
The complete success of this angel round of financing has laid a solid foundation for the grand blueprint of Interstellar Light Remote. Standing at a new starting point, Starlight Remote will continue to uphold the corporate spirit of "technology first, innovation driven, and quality first", deeply cultivate the core position of optical remote sensing payloads, and accelerate the breakthrough and industrialization process of key technologies. The company will work together with various partners to not only become a leader in China's commercial remote sensing payload technology, but also hopes to serve the national strategy with excellent aerospace products, empower thousands of industries, and leave its own glorious mark in the magnificent development history of China's commercial aerospace.
