A start-up wants to replace undersea internet cables with space lasers
Endeavor Optical Networks has raised $10.75 million to beam data between continents using laser-equipped satellites, aiming for speeds that rival the fibre cables on the ocean floor.
Key points
- Endeavor Optical Networks (EON) emerged from stealth in May 2025 with $10.75 million in seed funding from General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz.
- The company plans to launch roughly 20 satellites that use laser beams to carry data between continents at 2.4 terabits per second.
- A demo satellite targeting at least 800 gigabits per second throughput is planned for launch around the end of 2027.
- Blue Origin's competing TeraWave project aims for 6 terabits per second across 5,048 satellites, but is a far larger and longer undertaking.
- Early target customers are hyperscalers (companies that run giant data centres, like cloud providers) and AI labs that move enormous volumes of data daily.
Most of the internet travels along cables buried on the ocean floor. Those cables are expensive to lay, difficult to repair, and increasingly strained as the world's appetite for data grows. A newly announced start-up thinks the fix lives in orbit.
Endeavor Optical Networks, known as EON, stepped out of stealth this week after being founded in May 2025. The company raised $10.75 million in seed funding, with General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz backing it. Its plan: put a small fleet of laser-equipped satellites into orbit and use them to carry data between continents at speeds that match today's undersea fibre optic cables, which are cables made of glass threads that carry light signals instead of electricity.
Why lasers instead of radio signals?
Ordinary satellites use radio waves, and radio simply cannot carry enough data fast enough. Lasers carry far more information in a single beam. The challenge is the atmosphere, which can blur or block a laser beam, especially when clouds get in the way.
EON says it has a technical approach to handle that, including choosing ground stations in multiple locations and using weather data to route signals around bad conditions. The company is targeting a starting speed of 2.4 terabits per second, which is roughly 1,000 times faster than a typical home broadband connection. For context, previous demonstrations of space-to-ground laser links by companies such as York, Kepler, and Cailabs reached 2.5 gigabits per second. EON's opening target is about 1,000 times that figure.
| Milestone | Speed | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Prior space laser demos (York, Kepler, Cailabs) | 2.5 Gbps | Before 2025 |
| EON demo satellite target | 800 Gbps to 1 Tbps | End of 2027 |
| EON operational network target | 2.4 Tbps | Post-2027 |
| Blue Origin TeraWave target | 6 Tbps | TBD, 5,048 satellites |
The seed money will go toward building an optics lab, hiring engineers, and running ground tests before the demo satellite launches. CEO Charlie Horowitz, who previously worked at satellite manufacturer Apex Space, says that spacecraft should achieve the highest laser download speed ever demonstrated from orbit.
Who would actually use this?
The immediate customers are the big cloud and AI companies whose data centres send vast amounts of information across the globe every second. EON is specifically targeting routes that are poorly served today, such as France to Australia, or routes between Africa and South America where cable infrastructure is thin. The plan is to sell dedicated capacity, meaning a customer gets their own private link rather than sharing a pipe with others.
EON is not alone in chasing this idea. Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos, has announced TeraWave, a network of 5,048 satellites targeting speeds up to 6 terabits per second. That project is more ambitious and will take considerably longer to deploy. EON's 20-satellite fleet is a much smaller lift, though it faces all the same physics.
Caleb Henry, director of research at Quilty Space, offered a measured note to TechCrunch: satellite internet is only now moving from a last-resort option to genuinely reliable infrastructure, and building something optimised for data centres will be harder and take longer than founders typically predict.
Horowitz acknowledges that, but keeps the scope tight for now. "We have one rule at the company: no physics problems," he told TechCrunch. The bet is simple: more data is crossing the planet every year, the cables carrying it are already under pressure, and a faster alternative has real buyers waiting.
Common questions
Does this affect ordinary home internet users?
Not directly, at least not soon. EON's first customers are large cloud and AI companies, not households. If the technology matures and costs fall, it could eventually help expand internet access in parts of the world poorly served by undersea cables.
What happens if a satellite gets a cloud in the way?
EON plans to use multiple ground stations in each region and real-time weather data to switch the signal to a station with clear skies, similar to how a phone call is handed between mobile towers.
