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This Startup Helps Countries Assess Threats in Space
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By Marc Vartabedian, WSJ Pro
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Good day. Radar developer LeoLabs didn’t set out to become a defense-tech startup.
Founded in 2016 and backed by venture firms including Insight Partners and Airbus Ventures, LeoLabs offered detailed tracking of objects in low Earth orbit, including satellites and space debris.
But about a year ago, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company awoke to the suddenly hot defense-tech market and pivoted toward more military functions, such as tracking spy satellites launched by Western adversaries like China and Russia. Revenue quickly surged as the U.S. and its allies sought greater visibility into Earth’s low orbit in the face of mounting threats. LeoLabs offers countries both physical radar systems and access to analytics to assess those threats.
Venture investors have responded, said Chief Executive Tony Frazier. He is fielding interest from investors drawn to LeoLabs’ ability to offer international customers greater control of their own radar systems—which the company might parlay into a fresh financing, Frazier said.
WSJ Pro spoke with Frazier about the evolving defense-tech sector and investor enthusiasm for the niche. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
WSJ Pro: Can you describe how geopolitics are affecting the market you operate in?
Frazier: There’s increased adversarial activity in space. Between Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, there’s more launches and payloads that introduce more risk in space to the U.S. and its allies around the world.
We own and operate our radar network with systems on the ground that are looking up in space that can detect, track and characterize those objects in order to equip decision-makers with the information they need to respond. We built an analytics platform and our customers today subscribe to access our data as a service.
Read the full article.
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And now on to the news...
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Venture debt hit a record $53 billion in 2024. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
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Venture debt’s new focus. Venture-debt firms are shifting their focus to larger deals with mature private companies as more startups stay private for longer. Venture debt value hit a record $53 billion in 2024, up from $27 billion the prior year and more than a previous high of $42 billion in 2021, according to a report that venture debt firm Runway Growth Capital issued in partnership with PitchBook Data.
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As the value of deals rose, however, venture debt deal count fell to 1,341 transactions in 2024, its lowest level since 2016, the report shows.
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The trend continued during the first half of 2025, with a little more than $19 billion of venture debt deal volume, according to a separate report issued by Capital Advisors Group, a Boston-based registered investment adviser and debt financing consultant.
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97
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The number of IPOs U.S. companies launched this year through June, nearly 41% more than in the same period last year, according to Renaissance Capital.
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Perplexity Is Launching a New Revenue-Share Model for Publishers
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Perplexity will pay publishers for news articles that the artificial-intelligence company uses to answer queries. The artificial-intelligence startup expects to pay publishers from a $42.5 million revenue pool initially, and to increase that amount over time, Perplexity said Monday. Perplexity plans to distribute money when its AI assistant or search engine uses a news article to fulfill a task or answer a search request. Its payments to publishers will come out of the subscription revenue generated by a new news service, called Comet Plus, that Perplexity plans to roll out widely this fall.
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Low-immigration economy. Last week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. labor market has entered “a curious kind of balance.” The demand for workers has cooled, yet the unemployment rate has held steady because the supply of labor has slowed abruptly. Behind that slowing in the labor supply is a dramatic swing in immigration, from one of the biggest waves in U.S. history to almost none. Economists say that could have subtle but lasting consequences.
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People
Growth equity investor Glade Brook Capital Partners appointed Timothy “Chip” Stevens as partner and Tushar Behl as principal.
K2X Capital appointed Zach Noling as chief financial officer and Tonya J. Long as chief investment officer.
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AgendaPro, a Santiago-headquartered software platform for appointment-based service businesses in Latin America, raised a $35 million growth round. Riverwood Capital led the investment, which included additional support from Kayyak Ventures.
Aurasell, a San Francisco-based customer relationship management platform, landed a $30 million seed investment. Led by Next47, the round included participation from Menlo Ventures and Unusual Ventures.
Boost My School, a fundraising platform for K-12 schools, picked up a $10 million investment. High Alpha led the funding, which included participation from FOVC, ground game ventures and Allos Ventures.
Nullspace, a startup developing electromagnetic simulation software, was seeded with a $2.5 million investment. Fathom Fund led the round, with Managing Partner Paul Sheng joining the company’s board.
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Near Space Labs’ robot camera system is brought back to earth with a parachute. PHOTO: NEAR SPACE LABS
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