Sift

The intelligence layer for the physical world | Learn more @

[Sift @SiftStack]

We started Sift to build the infrastructure we needed while building human-rated spacecraft and the largest satellite constellations in history at SpaceX.

Here's what it looks like in practice. Something goes wrong on a test stand. In the old world, you're pulling data from three different systems, writing a one-off script to align timestamps, and hoping the engineer who set up the channel mapping documented it somewhere.

In Sift, the sensor data, audio, video, and logs from that test are already in one system, under one schema, queryable in sub-second time. You're not wrangling data. You're interacting with it.

[GV @GVteam]

Great founders start close to the problem.

At @spacex, Karthik Gollapudi and Austin Spiegel saw hardware teams relying on spreadsheets instead of world-class data. So they built @siftstack.

GV is proud to participate in their Series B. Congrats to the entire team!

[Sift @SiftStack]

https://t.co/Rk3N1PZL1l?

[Sift @SiftStack]

Today we're announcing a $42M Series B backed by @stepstonegroup , @GVteam (Google Ventures), @Riotventures, @fikavc and @CIV.

The AI era for physical systems starts with the data infrastructure underneath it.

Hardware teams are building spacecraft, propulsion systems, autonomous vehicles, and defense platforms. They're generating terabytes of high-frequency telemetry per test. But the tools they have were built for software logs, not for sensor data across vehicles running on independent clocks.

We built Sift from first principles: every data type, across 11+ hardware-native formats, lands in a structured schema that's readable by engineers and by models. Historical data stays queryable for the life of the program without breaking a budget.

70 employees today. Doubling with this round. All from our new headquarters in Marina del Rey. We're hiring.

[Sift @SiftStack]

Honored to be included in the 2025 LA Hard Tech 50.

Los Angeles has become the place where science fiction turns into reality.

We are witnessing a fundamental convergence of hardware and software that is allowing engineers to build faster and more ambitiously than ever before.

The people in this ecosystem are not just imagining the future but are actively engineering it.

It is a privilege to support the innovators who are bridging the gap between the physical and digital world.

[Jacques Sisteron @jdsisteron]

🚀 Introducing the 2025 LA Hard Tech 50! 🚀

The hard tech movement continues to build at a manic pace in LA, with more hardware engineers flocking to LA to build the next big company solving problems in aerospace/defense, manufacturing, energy, resources, & more.

[Sift @SiftStack]

Hard to disagree with that last sentence...

[Dev Shah @0xDevShah]

If I were a16z, yc, or sequoia, I’d be aggressively investing in startups that are building novel ways to collect and annotate real-world data.

> Billions of hours of driving data
> Factory workers interacting with appliances and heavy machinery
> Audio segmentation with deep dialectical and cultural understanding
> Wet-lab experimental data
> Continuous collection and annotation of agent traces at compute scale

When we built LLMs, most of the data already existed on the internet. We just had to scrape, clean, and scale. But as we move toward world foundation models, the bottleneck is high-quality, real-world, well-annotated data.

And annotation quality matters. There’s a massive difference between:

“Apple on a tree”

and

“Ripe apples on a tree. The wind is blowing at 2 miles per hour. The temperature is around 18°C.”

The question is simple. How much of the world can you actually capture?

Today, LLMs know that apples fall because of gravity, not because they understand causality, but because they understand language correlations extremely well. Understanding the causal structure comes next.

If I were building towards that future, I’d anchor data collection in India and other South and Southeast Asian regions. I’d deploy hardware, collect thousands of hours of human activity data, health signals, and vitals, and run annotation pipelines continuously. Day and night.

If I were a16z, I’d fund founders to do this.

I might just have the urge to do it myself.

[Sift @SiftStack]

Tracking hardware history is still a major blind spot. When systems don’t talk, investigations stall and risks go unnoticed.

Join us to discuss how market leading teams are enriching hardware with rich data context from component test through field operations.

Register: https://t.co/SZchl4cgd6

[Sift @SiftStack]

Machine without Limits. It’s what we believe.
What’s broken.
What needs to change.
And what we’re building. https://t.co/nnJJrbtQfr

[Sift @SiftStack]

Modern machines are more autonomous, software-defined, and complex than ever.

But the infrastructure to build, test, and operate them hasn’t kept up.

Our view on why and how that has to change. 🧵

https://t.co/nnJJrbtQfr

[Sift @SiftStack]

The future belongs to the observable.
Teams that can understand what their systems are doing as they operate will lead.
Not just in aerospace, but across every mission-critical domain.

[Sift @SiftStack]

“Test like you fly” wasn’t a metaphor. It was a warning.
Modern machines evolve fast—and testing can’t lag behind.
CI/CD for hardware isn’t about dashboards. It’s about infrastructure.
No black boxes. No broken handoffs. Just signal you can trust. https://t.co/8lDJcIfwOv

[Sift @SiftStack]

The faster you find the fault, the faster you fly again.
At @CX2_Industries , electronic warfare systems are tested in the desert, flown at pace, and iterated daily. But analyzing gigabytes of telemetry used to mean parsing CSVs and chasing log files. Now?
1. They open Sift.
2. They get answers.
3. They move forward.
“We’d be stopped in our tracks without it.”
See how CX2 uses Sift to turn flight data into fast, confident decisions. https://t.co/O0542vEYmy

[Sift @SiftStack]

We’re proud to announce our partnership with @GoToImpulse which reflects where the industry is heading. Tools that match the mission. Infrastructure that scales with the work. https://t.co/FMA1XJ9r7m

[Sift @SiftStack]

In mission-critical industries, losing track of hardware isn’t an option. We're excited to announce our partnership with @MANUFACTURO1 🚀

Full hardware traceability, zero blind spots. Read more and sign up for the beta program here: https://t.co/pKYHXHDh5F

[Sift @SiftStack]

Databases weren’t built for mission-critical machines. The future belongs to modular, decoupled systems that scale with demand. Read more in our latest blog: The Best Database is No Database. https://t.co/O12i7mDFPu

[Sift @SiftStack]

Hans Koenigsmann’s work at @SpaceX showed how continuous testing, adaptive workflows, and institutional knowledge-sharing transform risk into progress. What can today’s engineers learn from Koenigsmann’s approach? Read more https://t.co/zPxgus9QTz

[Sift @SiftStack]

🚀 @AstroMechanica chooses Sift to streamline high-frequency telemetry, accelerate test cycles, and ensure their engineers spend time refining propulsion systems—not wrangling data. 📖 Check out the story here: https://t.co/vt0GlKzG7F

[Sift @SiftStack]

We’re thrilled to announce @critical_loop as our first customer in the energy industry! 🎉
This partnership is a testament to how modern observability tools can ensure operational excellence and redefine mobile energy management. https://t.co/JRmVCnJ4KQ

[Sift @SiftStack]

✈️ Thrilled to partner with JetZero to accelerate sustainable aviation!

Leveraging SpaceX-inspired expertise, Sift delivers:
✅ Precision in complexity
✅ Operational clarity
✅ Confidence in safety

Together, we’re shaping the future of flight. 🚀 https://t.co/1Y8TkwUtY5