The Exploration Company (TEC) raised a $450M (€386.9M) Series C this week in one of the European space industry’s largest scale-up fundraises to date.
The round, which brings TEC’s total financing to ~$680M (€584.7M) since its founding in 2021, will fund the development of the company’s Nyx cargo reentry vehicle, as well as its Storm reusable rocket engine.
Bessemer Venture Partners, Atomico, and the Scaleup Europe Fund—managed by EQT—led the round, which included additional participation from TEC’s existing investors Balderton, Plural, Cherry Ventures, and Red River West.
Ups and downs: With the new capital, TEC plans to hire new employees in engineering, manufacturing, mission operations, and propulsion tech across its locations in the US, Europe, and UAE.
The influx of funds will also pay for Nyx’s first mission to the ISS, planned for 2028. TEC has flown two subscale demo flights of Nyx with mixed results:
- The first flight—dubbed Mission Bikini—launched on an Ariane 6 rocket in July 2024, but ultimately didn’t deploy after Ariane’s upper stage failed to perform a deorbit burn to place the capsule into a reentry trajectory.
- The second flight—dubbed Mission Possible—launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in June 2025, during which the spacecraft successfully reentered the atmosphere and established comms during its downfall. The flight was only a partial success, however, as TEC lost contact with the vehicle minutes before splashdown.
But the growing pains of these demo missions hasn’t slowed demand. TEC has won more than $2B in contracts since its founding, including awards from ESA to develop its LEO cargo-return service. TEC has also notched agreements with Axiom Space, Starlab, and Vast to resupply commercial stations, once they’re up and running.
Another launcher: Alongside its development of Nyx, TEC plans to ramp up development of its Storm reusable rocket engine.
Storm is designed as a full-flow, staged-combustion-cycle engine, fueled by liquid oxygen and bio-methane. It’s being built to provide reusable heavy-lift launch capabilities—40 tons to LEO on a single launch—at a time when Europe is attempting to stand up sovereign access to orbit.
The new capital will allow TEC to conduct a series of sub-scale tests, with the aim of progressing to a full-scale engine test in the next few years.
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The Space Force officially has its third leader.
Gen. Douglas Schiess became the chief of space operations on Sept. 3, following the retirement of Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, who led the almost-seven-year-old service for nearly four years.
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