Akula Tech

Akula Tech was founded in June 2022 by CEO Preetham Akula with the vision of redefining the space industry through advanced, software-defined satellite systems. Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, the company designs, builds and deploys next-generation smart satellites that bring real-time, on-orbit artificial intelligence to Earth observation and defence applications.

Akula Tech's flagship technology is an Edge-AI payload built around an NVIDIA Jetson TX2i onboard computer (256 CUDA cores, 1.3 TFLOPS), capable of processing hyperspectral imagery from Level 0 to Level 3 and running multiple AI/ML models in parallel, in orbit. This cuts the latency between data capture and actionable insight from days to minutes, with applications spanning bushfire detection, crop and vegetation monitoring, defence and emergency response, and climate/environmental monitoring.

The company's inaugural mission, Nexus-01, launched as a hosted payload aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 via Dhruva Space's LEAP-1 program, flying alongside Esper Satellites' OTR-2 hyperspectral imager. Akula Tech has been recognised as a finalist for the Start-up of the Year at the Australian Space Awards, qualified for the XPRIZE Wildfire Challenge, and was selected for the UNSW Defence Pre-X accelerator program.