Decentralized communications platform Satellite IM closes $10.5 million round

Decentralized communications platform Satellite IM announced it has closed a $10.5 million seed round. 

Leading the round are Framework Ventures and Multicoin, according to a release on Thursday. Other investors include Solana Ventures, IDEO CoLab, Hashed and Pioneer Square Labs Ventures. 

Founded in 2020 by Christopher Hogan, Thomas McArdle and Matthew Wisniewski, Satellite IM is a decentralized communications platform that enables peer-to-peer private messaging.  

The startup is planning to provide early access to its desktop application this summer, which will support 4K video chats and the sharing of up to 4GB files, according to the release.  

The desktop application is built on top of InterPlanetary File System, which is a peer-to-peer storage network. 

Satellite IM’s protocol is also Ethereum virtual machine compatible, and the platform is made such that developers can build on top of it and easily integrate with multiple layer 1 blockchains, per the release. 

“Discord is trying to serve too many different types of communities with diverse sets of needs,” said Kyle Samani, managing partner at Multicoin Capital, in the release. “Satellite is going to serve crypto communities by offering best in class crypto-native features, along a credibly-neutral, decentralized back end.” 

In the fall, Satellite IM plans to release its mobile-native application called UpLink. 

The startup eventually plans to implement a revenue model that is similar to what is applied by the Apple app store, according to a spokesperson for the company.

Developers will be able to build applications in the system and access Satellite’s user base in return for a cut of the revenue, they added.

This article has been updated to add Matthew Wisniewski as a co-founder.