Founder, Capella Space
Outstanding Young Alumnus
B.S. ASE 2012, The University of Texas at Austin
M.S. Management, Science & Engineering 2016, Stanford University
Payam Banazadeh is an American entrepreneur and technology executive with expertise in deep technologies. He specializes in businesses that require developing solutions that overcome significant scientific or engineering challenges, with a keen interest at the intersection of hardware and software technologies.
Banazadeh earned a business/management master’s degree from Stanford University and a B.S. degree in aerospace engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.
In 2016, Banazadeh founded Capella Space, the first American company to launch commercial Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites. Under his leadership, Capella raised over $250 million in venture capital and emerged as a world leader in a new category of data and information intelligence from space. Capella Space provides critical and life-saving geospatial data to the U.S. government, international governments and some of the largest commercial enterprises in the world.
Before founding Capella Space, Banazadeh was an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where he received the NASA Mariner Award, NASA Discovery Award and NASA Formulation Award for his significant contributions to NASA missions.
Banazadeh is an advisor to CEOs, founders and investors in deep technology and frequently speaks on panels and industry conferences on a variety of topics spanning from space, big data, cloud computation, defense technology, government innovation and startups. He is currently serving on the UT Austin ASE/EM External Advisory Committee, the National Security Space Association (NSSA) board and NOAA’s Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing (ACCRES).
