Ashi Dissanayake

Ashi Dissanayake
Occupation	Entrepreneur, aerospace engineer
Known for	Co-founder and CEO of Spaceium Inc

Ashi Dissanayake is an aerospace engineer and entrepreneur who is the co-founder and CEO of Spaceium Inc, a startup developing fully automated space stations for in-space refueling and repair of spacecraft. The company was part of Y Combinator's Summer 2024 batch.

Career

Dissanayake studied at the University of Ottawa, where she and co-founder Reza Fetanat built a rocket that flew to 30,000 feet as students. She specializes in orbital mechanics and rocket propulsion systems. Prior to founding Spaceium, Dissanayake worked on aerodynamic models for NASA, built models for interplanetary transfers for an unmanned return mission to an asteroid, and developed rocket engines, payload structures, and recovery systems.

Dissanayake co-founded Spaceium Inc with Fetanat after recognizing that fuel was a universal constraint limiting space missions and that orbital refueling infrastructure did not yet exist. Neither founder came from a business background; both were engineers. In the company's earliest days, Dissanayake worked from the floor of a small apartment using her dog's bed as a table, while Fetanat took calls from a laundry room.

Spaceium builds fully automated space stations designed to store and transfer both cryogenic and non-cryogenic fuels with zero loss during storage and transfer. The stations use a proprietary modular robotic arm to transfer fuel to any spacecraft design. The company's customers include launch vehicles, orbital transfer vehicles, moon landers, and other spacecraft that benefit from increased payload capacity and extended travel capabilities. In 2025, Spaceium demonstrated its refueling actuator in orbit.

The company was accepted into Y Combinator's Summer 2024 batch, where it completed one of the larger seed rounds of its cohort. In January 2025, Spaceium raised an oversubscribed $6.3 million seed round led by Initialized Capital, with participation from 15 additional venture capital firms and angel investors. According to the company, it has secured $86.1 million in binding commercial contracts, with an additional $230 million in its pipeline and $1 billion in letters of intent.

Spaceium's long-term goal is to build a network of service hubs along what it describes as a "space superhighway" connecting Earth to the Moon and Mars. Dissanayake is a member of the Forbes Technology Council.