PiggyGPT

Private companiesCovered

Umbra

Santa Barbara, CA · Founded 2015

Umbra builds and operates a constellation of synthetic aperture radar satellites and sells the imagery to the National Reconnaissance Office, other U.S. defense and civil agencies, allied governments and commercial users. Since 2025 it also sells its spacecraft components.

Profile

What it builds and who buys it

  • ·Umbra designs, builds and operates synthetic aperture radar satellites, which image through clouds and at night.Umbra (company page)
  • ·Its imagery is licensed down to 13 cm resolution.Umbra (joint release with Maxar), Feb 14, 2023
  • ·Over four years of NRO study contracts, Umbra delivered more than 100,000 images to the agency’s Commercial Systems Program Office.Umbra (company release), Aug 5, 2026
  • ·In August 2026 the NRO moved Umbra, Capella Space and Iceye US to Radar Commercial Augmentation contracts running from August 1, 2026 through July 31, 2027, with options through July 31, 2029. The NRO did not disclose the value.Breaking Defense, Aug 5, 2026
  • ·The NRO first contracted Umbra for radar data under its Strategic Commercial Enhancements program in January 2022, with Capella Space and Iceye US among the others.Breaking Defense, Dec 4, 2025
  • ·The NRO advanced Umbra to Stage III of its Commercial Radar Capabilities contract in December 2024.Umbra (company release), Dec 4, 2024
  • ·The Space Force’s Space Development Agency awarded Umbra a $2 million contract in October 2024 to study linking its satellites into the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.SpaceNews, Oct 22, 2024
  • ·Under that contract Umbra is demonstrating its optical inter-satellite link so imagery can reach tactical users without a ground terminal in theater.Umbra (company release), Oct 21, 2024
  • ·SpaceWERX selected Umbra for a STRATFI award in April 2025 to build a next-generation constellation for wide-area maritime search in the Indo-Pacific. With matching funds the effort can reach $60 million, pending contracting and co-investment.Umbra (company release), Apr 8, 2025
  • ·The Defense Innovation Unit is funding research on the same maritime radar effort over three years.Umbra (company release), Apr 8, 2025
  • ·AFWERX awarded Umbra a $1.25 million SBIR Phase II contract in August 2023 for space-based moving target indication.Umbra (company release), Aug 22, 2023
  • ·In July 2021 Umbra was added to a $950 million ceiling multi-award IDIQ for Joint All Domain Command and Control, alongside Boeing, L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Palantir and Raytheon Technologies.Umbra (company release), Jul 16, 2021
  • ·DARPA selected Umbra for its DRIFT distributed radar program in May 2023, using pairs of its satellites flown in formation.Umbra (company release), May 22, 2023
  • ·DARPA advanced Umbra to Phase II of DRIFT in May 2024, a multi-month bistatic and multistatic collection campaign.Umbra (company release), May 1, 2024
  • ·Umbra signed a cooperative research and development agreement with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in March 2025.Umbra (company release), Mar 27, 2025
  • ·NOAA selected Umbra as a radar data provider on its Space-Based Environmental Monitoring IDIQ in September 2026, effective through August 31, 2036.Umbra (company release), Sep 17, 2026
  • ·Umbra signed multi-year imagery agreements with government customers in Asia in August and October 2025.Umbra (company blog), Oct 15, 2025
  • ·The first Asia agreement was described by the company as multi-million dollar.Umbra (company blog), Aug 27, 2025
  • ·Umbra moved into a 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Southern California in June 2025, which it says quadruples its production capacity.Umbra (company release), Jun 25, 2025
  • ·By August 2026 it had announced a 20,000-square-foot engineering facility in Reston, Virginia.Umbra (company release), Aug 5, 2026
  • ·Its Space Systems unit, launched in August 2025, sells nine of its flight-proven spacecraft components across four categories to other operators.Umbra (company release), Aug 11, 2025
  • ·The company dropped "Lab" from its name, Umbra Lab, in January 2021 as it moved from research toward operating a commercial constellation.Umbra (company blog), Jan 6, 2021
  • ·Todd Master, formerly of DARPA, moved from chief operating officer to chief strategy officer in April 2026, after leading the Space Systems business to its first sales.Umbra (company blog), Apr 22, 2026
  • ·Ashley Durmer, previously vice president of communications, became chief operating officer in September 2026.Umbra (company blog), Sep 30, 2026

Founders and leadership

  • David LanganCo-founder and chief executive

    Systems engineer, technical director and space mission architect at Orbital ATK, now part of Northrop Grumman, before founding Umbra in 2015. Served on NOAA’s Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing from 2016 to 2020.Umbra (company page)

  • Gabe DominocieloCo-founder (president as of May 2023)

    Worked in advertising before Umbra. Ran the company with Langan as its only two people for almost two years. He is not on the company’s current leadership page.Umbra (company blog), May 8, 2023

Prospects, after the September 2026 NOAA award

Prepared by PiggyGPT, as of Oct 12, 2026

  • ·The NRO is the anchor customer. Its August 2026 award turns four years of study contracts into a firm-fixed-price radar purchase with options through July 2029. The value is classified.Breaking Defense, Aug 5, 2026
  • ·The defense awards with a stated figure are small: a $1.25 million AFWERX SBIR, a $2 million Space Development Agency study and a STRATFI effort of up to $60 million that depends on matching funds. No revenue figure is on file, and the 2021 Form D declines to disclose revenue.Umbra (company release), Apr 8, 2025
  • ·Commercial radar for the NRO is a three-way field: Capella Space and Iceye US hold the same contract type.Breaking Defense, Aug 5, 2026
  • ·The only round on file is $32.4 million of equity in 2021, with no stated valuation. Clarity shows a $20.00 estimate and Nasdaq Private Market $38.01 as of September 28, 2026.
  • ·For the acquisition read, the ties on file are partnerships: Maxar holds dedicated capacity on the constellation and RTX’s Raytheon is in a teaming agreement with it. Neither holds a disclosed stake, and no talks or approach are reported. The posture is watch.

A summary of what the figures on this page add up to, prepared by PiggyGPT from the record on file and its cited sources. Not the Street's view, and not advice.

Funding

Last valuation

No citable valuation

Last round or tender

$32.4Mraised

Equity round, Jan 30, 2021SEC EDGAR (Form D), Jan 7, 2021

Announced as $32 million of equity financing, led by the family office venture fund of John Burbank, founder of Passport Capital, with CrossCut Ventures, Starbridge Ventures, Hemisphere Ventures and PonValley. The company does not name the round. The Form D records $32,379,967 of equity sold to 23 investors from October 23, 2020, the amount recorded here. No valuation was stated.

Latest revenue figure

—

Valuation to revenue

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Post-money valuation by round

Fewer than two dated figures on file to plot; the table carries what there is.

DateRoundRaisedPost-money
Jan 30, 2021Equity roundAnnounced as $32 million of equity financing, led by the family office venture fund of John Burbank, founder of Passport Capital, with CrossCut Ventures, Starbridge Ventures, Hemisphere Ventures and PonValley. The company does not name the round. The Form D records $32,379,967 of equity sold to 23 investors from October 23, 2020, the amount recorded here. No valuation was stated.$32M—

Primary capital across the rounds on file: $32.4M

Revenue

No citable revenue figure on file.

Secondary venues

  • Clarity (formerly Hiive)public page seen Oct 12, 2026

    Clarity Price $20.00, as of Oct 12, 2026

    Clarity calls the figure a model-derived indicative estimate calculated daily; the page dates it no further than a "last updated" line reading August 28, 2026. The page shows +0.00% all time.

  • Nasdaq Private Marketpublic page seen Oct 12, 2026

    NPM Price $38.01, as of Sep 28, 2026

    The dated figure in the page text; the page title showed the same $38.01.

  • Caplightpublic page seen Oct 12, 2026

    No price on the public page.

    No public MarketPrice; historical pricing is behind a login, and the page shows only Caplight’s last-round figures.

A venue is listed when its public page named the company on the date shown. A price is the figure that page showed, under the venue’s own name for it and dated as the venue dated it; it is a level the venue publishes, not a trade. Nothing is recorded from behind a login.

Reads

Acquisition: Watch

A cited tie to a plausible buyer: a strategic partner, an investor stake, a tender offer, a stated appetite. Nothing reported.

Prepared by PiggyGPT, as of Oct 12, 2026

Signals

  • Feb 14, 2023Maxar signed for dedicated capacity on Umbra’s radar constellation. Maxar’s head of government business told Breaking Defense the partnership is how Maxar will meet its NGA contract to supply imagery to U.S. allies.Breaking Defense, Feb 14, 2023
  • Jan 27, 2025Array Labs, Umbra and Raytheon, an RTX business, announced a three-way teaming agreement to bring 3D radar data products to market.Umbra (joint release with Array Labs and Raytheon), Jan 27, 2025
  • Dec 4, 2025The NRO extended Umbra’s Commercial Radar Capabilities contract by 15.5 months, Breaking Defense reported.Breaking Defense, Dec 4, 2025
  • Aug 5, 2026The NRO awarded Umbra a sole-source, firm-fixed-price Radar Commercial Augmentation contract, with a one-year base and two one-year options. Capella Space and Iceye US received the same type of award.Umbra (company release), Aug 5, 2026

Named counterparties

Counterparties are named for a cited reason: a partnership, an investment, or a stated appetite. Naming is not a forecast.

A summary of what the figures on this page add up to, prepared by PiggyGPT from the record on file and its cited sources. Not the Street's view, and not advice.

Sources

Researched Oct 12, 2026