Startup · United States
Cognitive Space
HQ Houston, TexasFounded 201811-50 employeesUpdated
Automating satellite operations and satellite Data-as-a-Service through AI to empower the use of space.
Federal Prime Contracts$9.5M obligated · FY2020–FY2025
- Obligated
- $9.5M
- FY2020–FY2025
- Contract actions
- 23
- 10 awards
- Peak year
- FY2020
- $2.3M
- Top buyer
- U.S. Air Force
- 88% of obligations
Show as table
| Fiscal year | Obligated | Actions | Awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $1.8M | 2 | 2 |
| FY2024 | $900K | 1 | 1 |
| FY2023 | $1.2M | 3 | 2 |
| FY2022 | $1.5M | 9 | 4 |
| FY2021 | $1.7M | 5 | 4 |
| FY2020 | $2.3M | 3 | 3 |
Top buyers
- U.S. Air Force$8.3M 88%
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration$900K 9.5%
- Immediate Office of the Secretary of Defense$275K 2.9%
What they sell (PSC)
- National Defense R&D Services; Defense-Related Activities; Applied Research$3.1M 33%
- National Defense R&D Services; Department of Defense - Military; Experimental Development$2.0M 21%
- R&D- Defense Other: Other (Applied Research/Exploratory Development)$1.5M 16%
- Space R&D Services; Space Flight, Research and Supporting Activities; Experimental Development$1.2M 13%
- Support- Professional: Engineering/Technical$900K 9.5%
- National Defense R&D Services; Atomic Energy Defense Activities; Applied Research$750K 7.9%
Industry (NAICS)
- Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (Except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology)$6.0M 63%
- Space Research and Technology$1.8M 19%
- All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services$1.7M 18%
Where the work is done
- Texas$9.5M 100%
Contract pricing
- Firm Fixed Price$9.5M 100%
Competition
- Full and Open Competition After Exclusion of Sources$8.6M 90%
- Full and Open Competition$900K 9.5%
Largest awards10
- Cognitive Space Will Enhance Its Cntient-optimize Product and Work with Sda Through An Agile Development Process to Update, Demonstrate and Iterate with the Sda Customer for the Effective Automated Tasking of Tracking Layer Satellites. · U.S. Air Force · USAspending ↗$1.8M
- Cognitive Space Inc - Space Pitch Day 2021 · U.S. Air Force · USAspending ↗$1.7M
- COVID-19 Dib to Adapt Cognitive Space's Commercial CNTIENT-SC3 Product for the Automated Command Generation for Air Force Satellites. · U.S. Air Force · USAspending ↗$1.5M
- Cognitive Inference Tasking (Cntient) for Topology and Link Management of A Dynamic Satellite Network · U.S. Air Force · USAspending ↗$1.2M
- Add-work Modification to FA8649-20-C-0031: Cntient Product Expansion · U.S. Air Force · USAspending ↗$1.2M
- To Conduct Limited Scale Demonstrations in Response to BAA-NOAA-GPD-2023Outside DoD, DHS, DOE and NASA · National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration · USAspending ↗$900K
- Cognitive Space Will Support Five Exercise Through An Adaptation of the Cntient-space Product Tailored for Each Exercise During A Technical Period of Performance of 15 Months. · U.S. Air Force · USAspending ↗$750K
- Phase I Sbir Basic Award for the Intelligent Space Mesh Network Routing for Communication Resiliency Program. · Immediate Office of the Secretary of Defense · USAspending ↗$275K
- Ai Driven Autonomous Tasking for USAF Satellite Command and Control · U.S. Air Force · USAspending ↗$50K
- Intelligent Antenna Network Management for Effective Satellite Communications · U.S. Air Force · USAspending ↗$50K
Awards marked “Outside DoD, DHS, DOE and NASA” come from the contractor-first USAspending search of this company's awards at every agency and are not in sector totals. Awards of DoD, DHS, DOE and NASA under $10,000 net are counted in totals but not listed; find them on USAspending ↗.
Signed obligations on federal prime contracts (award types A–D) from USAspending, FY2008 through Oct 9, 2026. Obligations are money the government committed, not company revenue, and include de-obligations. Subcontracts and grants are excluded. Matching is by registered UEI.
Federal Obligations by Year (All USAspending, as Reported at the Time)
| Fiscal year | Direct: contracts |
|---|---|
| FY2026 (partial) | $500 |
| FY2025 | $1.8M |
| FY2024 | $0 |
| FY2023 | $1.2M |
| FY2022 | $1.5M |
| FY2021 | $1.7M |
| FY2020 | $2.3M |
Direct is the company's own reviewed UEIs. Reported by USAspending is subsidiaries as reported by USAspending: recipients that name this company as their parent, not yet reviewed ownership.
Directly matched recipients (up to 12)
UEIs matched to this organization, largest obligations first. Subsidiary recipients are not included in this list; their attributed obligations can appear in the company totals above.
- COGNITIVE SPACE, INC · V4LVMKMW74B3 · $8.6M
Each action is credited by the ownership basis shown in its column. Reported-parent rows count for Cognitive Space only for the period a subsidiary reported Cognitive Space as its parent; reviewed links follow their reviewed dates. Net of de-obligations; these are obligations, not ceilings. They come from the whole USAspending baseline (every recipient size, contracts and assistance) and are a separate view from the curated contract totals on this page. FY2026 and later are partial, as on Markets.
Funding7 rounds · $11.7M
- Equity raised
- $11.7M
- Latest
- UndisclosedConvertible · Dec 8, 2023
| Announced | Stage | Amount | Valuation | Lead investors | Other investors | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 8, 2023 | Convertible | Undisclosed | — | — | — | Reported |
| Dec 8, 2023 | Undisclosed | $500K | — | — | — | Confirmed |
| Oct 16, 2023 | Seed | $4.0M | — | — | Dolby Family Ventures, Draper Associates | Confirmed |
| Nov 22, 2021 | Seed | Undisclosed | — | — | — | Speculative |
| Nov 3, 2021 | Seed | $5.7M | — | Grit Ventures, SpaceFund | Techstars | Confirmed |
| Jan 1, 2021 | Seed | $1.5M | — | — | — | Reported |
| Jun 8, 2020 | Pre-Seed | Undisclosed | — | Techstars | — | Speculative |
- ConvertibleUndisclosedDec 8, 2023
- UndisclosedConfirmed$500KDec 8, 2023
- $4.0MOct 16, 2023
- SeedSpeculativeUndisclosedNov 22, 2021
- $5.7MNov 3, 2021
- Seed$1.5MJan 1, 2021
- UndisclosedJun 8, 2020
Raised counts equity rounds; debt, secondary sales and grants are totaled separately. Amounts in other currencies are converted at the announcement month's average rate. A ~ marks an estimated or converted amount.
Systems1
- CNTIENT.OptimizeAn AI‑powered satellite fleet management software service for real‑world data collection.
Newest unveiled first. Systems that belong to a government program link to the program page, where variants, costs and contracts are.
Capabilities1
| Technology | Role | Maturity | TRL | Notes | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Space, launch and counterspace | Developer | — | — | classify_sectors run 37, haiku, taxonomy 2026-10-18b: AI automation of satellite operations and satellite data-as-a-service; no defense use is stated. | Reported |
- Developerclassify_sectors run 37, haiku, taxonomy 2026-10-18b: AI automation of satellite operations and satellite data-as-a-service; no defense use is stated.—Reported
Maturity and TRL describe this organization's work; the field-wide maturity is on each technology's page.
People2
| Person | Role |
|---|---|
| Guy de Carufel · LinkedIn ↗ | CEO & Founder |
| Steven Balthazor · LinkedIn ↗ | CFO & Secretary |
Sources12
Show all 12 sources and supporting evidence
Profile2
- 1
PitchBook · Supports Organization · employee range, Organization · founded year, Organization · linkedin url, Organization · x url
“employee_range: 11-50 (profile: 27)”
- 2
Sixth-Domain · Supports Organization · country, Organization · kind
“{"country": "USA", "hq_iso2": "US", "id": "a075f78d-140a-43cd-809a-7472ebc0ceef"}”
Systems1
- 3
Cognitive Space · Supports Organization · description, Organization · name, Organization · website, System
“Automating satellite operations and satellite Data-as-a-Service through AI to empower the use of space.”
Funding8
- 4Regulatory filingCognitive Space, Inc. - SEC Form D (0001894610-23-000002)
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission · Dec 14, 2023 · Supports Funding round
“Total Amount Sold $500,000 USD”
- 5
Yahoo Finance (Accesswire) · Oct 16, 2023 · Supports Funding round · amount, Organization · ownership
“today announced it has raised $4M in seed+ funding during the second quarter of 2023”
- 6Regulatory filingCognitive Space, Inc. - SEC Form D (0001894610-23-000001)
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission · May 9, 2023 · Supports Funding round
“Total Offering Amount $4,000,000 USD”
- 7Regulatory filingCognitive Space, Inc. - SEC Form D (0001894610-21-000001)
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission · Nov 18, 2021 · Supports Funding round
“Total Amount Sold $5,741,086 USD”
- 8
Tracxn · Supports Funding round
“made their first investment in Cognitive Space on Nov 22, 2021 in its Seed round”
- 9DatabaseCognitive Space company profile
Octen Business Search · Supports Funding round, Organization · hq region
“funding round: Seed Round, 2021-01-01, USD 1,500,000”
- 10
Seedtable · Supports Funding round
“Cognitive Space Raises 120K USD in Seed Funding”
- 11
People1
- 12
Crunchbase · Supports Organization · employee range, Organization · hq city, Organization · linkedin url, Organization · x url, Role
“employee_range: 11-50 (profile: 11-50)”
Government identifiers1
- UEI
- V4LVMKMW74B3
- COGNITIVE SPACE, INC
- Checked Oct 21, 2026
Identifiers are matched to this legal entity; related companies may hold different registrations.
Each fact on this page is attached to the sources that support it. Archived copies are linked when we keep one.