Stories about how space companies are raising money to take on next-gen missions.
The Pentagon is getting into investing. Yesterday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin established a new Office of Strategic Capital (OSC), which aims to give the DoD the ability to work more closely with private capital. Why get into capital markets? Right now, the DoD’s mechanisms for helping new, important technologies hop the “valley of death” […]
SynMax, a satellite data analytics startup specializing in oil, gas and dark ship monitoring, has raised a $6M seed round from a group of existing customers. Bill Perkins, an energy trader and cofounder of SkyFi, and GeoSol Capital LLC participated in the round. What’s the name of the game for SynMax? The Houston startup is […]
3D metal printing is getting a makeover. Rosotics, a Mesa, AZ-based startup designing a more efficient, large-scale 3D printer optimized for the needs of the aerospace industry, announced this morning the closing of a $750,000 pre-seed round. The round was led by Draper Associates with participation from Correlation Ventures, Vibe Capital, and Sequoia Capital. That’s […]
Gravitics, a startup building human-rated space station modules, has closed a $20M funding round to build StarMax, its first product. Type One Ventures led the round, with participation from Draper Associates, FJ Labs, The Venture Collective, Helios Capital, Giant Step Capital, Gaingels, Spectre, Manhattan West, and Mana Ventures. Introducing Gravitics The Seattle-based startup emerged from […]
Despite deteriorating economic conditions on Earth—and plenty of reasons to be bearish on the sector—space tech is set to have a banner year in VC funding. Global venture investment into space startups totals ~$6.2B billion this year, according to a recent PitchBook tally (the data runs through Oct. 24). That’s roughly the same amount as […]
Wyvern has raised $7M in a seed plus round led by Uncork Capital, bringing the hyperspectral startup’s total financing to ~$15M to date. Previous investors MaC Venture Capital and Y Combinator also participated in this round. MaC led Wyvern’s seed round in October 2021; Wyvern also recently graduated from YC’s W22 batch. The Edmonton, Canada […]
Array Labs, a YC alum with ambitions to map the world in 3D, has raised a $5M seed round to kickstart the development of its radar constellation. The investment was led by Seraphim Space and Agya Ventures, with participation from Republic Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, Rebel Fund, Y Combinator cofounder Trevor Blackwell, and Keyhole cofounder […]
Apex, an LA-based satellite developer, emerged from stealth today with $7.5M+ in funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, with participation from XYZ, J2, Lux Capital, and Village Global. The name of the game Apex aims to manufacture satellite buses in the 100-kilogram class that can support ~100 kgs of payload. It aims to sell Aries, […]
Space Capital has released its quarterly report on investment in the space industry. In the third quarter of 2022, investors injected $3.4B into 79 individual space companies, broadly defined across infrastructure, distribution, and applications. Infrastructure It comes as no surprise that SpaceX takes the cake in capital raised over Q3 with its $1.9B Series R. […]
Solestial, a startup spun out of Arizona State University aiming to be the go-to solar energy company for space, announced the close of a $10M seed round. The round was led by Airbus Ventures with participation from AEI HorizonX, GPVC, Stellar Ventures, and Industrious Ventures. The Tempe, AZ-based startup takes a different tack on manufacturing […]
AE Industrial Partners (AEI) announced on Tuesday that it plans to acquire a majority stake in satellite systems provider York Space Systems. According to a report by CNBC, AEI acquired a 51% stake in a deal that values York at $1.125B, making it the next space “unicorn.” AEI declined to comment on the terms of […]
Time just flies by in the space industry, and we’ve already arrived at the end of the third quarter of 2022. It was a busy quarter, full of major partnership announcements, strides in science, and a jam-packed conference season. Here are the highlights from the last three months in commercial, military, and civil space. July […]
