Northwood Closes $100 Million Series B Round

Northwood closed a $100 million Series B funding round, Fortune reported. Bridgit Mendler, 33, founded and leads the space startup, which she co-founded in 2023. Mendler described her path at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech Conference in Aspen, Colorado this week.

She said space-industry leaders share a high tolerance for risk that she first developed as a child actor. She began working in television at age 11 and auditioned unsuccessfully in 2007 for the lead role in Disney’s Sonny With a Chance. She said repeated rejections prepared her for the odds of building a company.

During her Disney years, Mendler enrolled at the University of Southern California to study anthropology. She left the university in 2016 while taking a limited course load. Two years later she applied to MIT’s master’s program without an undergraduate degree or coding experience.

“I showed up before a tenured MIT professor with no coding experience and no undergrad degree asking for admission into their master’s program,” she said. She later took courses toward an MIT PhD and graduated with a JD from Harvard Law School in 2024. Mendler said the willingness to accept uncertainty matches what is required in the space sector.

She told the audience that space has moved from a niche field to one attracting major capital. “For a long time, the space economy has existed, but it’s been pretty niche,” she said. ” Mendler advised listeners to pursue their curiosity even without conventional credentials.

“There is so much less downside to trying and exploring your curiosity than maybe people realize,” she said.