Sift raises $42 million in Series B round
Sift, a Southern California startup that builds software for hardware sensor data, announced a $42 million Series B financing round on March 25. The round was disclosed from Washington, where the company issued its press release. Sift’s chief executive, Karthik Gollapudi, confirmed the new capital will fund an expansion of the engineering team that creates the infrastructure layer for AI‑driven devices. The investment follows a $17.5 million Series A led by Google Ventures and targets markets that include aerospace launch vehicles, satellite constellations, defense platforms and autonomous vehicles.
Sift’s platform automatically converts raw telemetry from hundreds of onboard sensors into structured, queryable datasets that both engineers and machine‑learning models can consume. According to the company, modern rockets, satellites, defense systems and autonomous vehicles generate millions of data points per second, yet existing tools rely on spreadsheets and tribal knowledge. By providing an observability layer, Sift enables real‑time flagging of out‑of‑bounds telemetry and closes the design loop through feedback from operational data. Co‑founder and CTO Neel Kunjur highlighted the relevance of the technology as satellite operators propose constellations of tens to hundreds of thousands of units, which will produce an enormous data volume. The Series B round was led by StepStone Group, with participation from Riot Ventures, Fika Ventures and CIV, complementing Google Ventures’ continued involvement. Sift was founded in 2022 by Gollapudi, a former Dragon flight‑software lead, and Austin Spiegel, who previously directed Starlink Constellation Tools at SpaceX.
The infusion of capital arrives as the aerospace sector scales megaconstellations and adopts AI‑centric architectures, underscoring a growing demand for hardware observability solutions. By structuring sensor streams, Sift’s technology could reduce reliance on manual data handling and accelerate iterative hardware development across launch vehicles and satellite platforms. The participation of venture firms with deep ties to both commercial space and defense suggests the market perceives a strategic advantage in automating telemetry analysis for large‑scale operations.
