Grab a bucket. It’s raining cash in Europe.
A report from the European Space Policy Institute, released today, found that European space ventures secured a record €1.5B in funding last year—a 56% increase over 2023.
The growth was driven by a perfect storm of political will, increased appetite for public and private investment into defense, and the overall maturing of Europe’s space ecosystem.
In conversations with investors on the continent, Payload found the funding boom is just getting started.
By the numbers: Europe remains in third place—behind the US and China—when it comes to total space industry investment worldwide. Its growth path, however, is on a steep trajectory.
- The funding increase in 2024 was driven in large part by sizeable growth-stage investments: The Exploration Company’s €147M Series B, ICEYE’s €146M Series E, Unseenlabs’ €85M Series C, and Isar Aerospace’s €65M Series C extension.
- While YoY funding increased across the board in Europe, it’s also become more concentrated; two-thirds of investment is going towards companies in France, Germany, and the UK.
- The vast majority (~80%) of all funds raised by space companies in 2024 came from public, or mixed public-private sources.
- European space ventures with defense-focused business lines received 40% of the total funds in 2024.
And the good news has continued into 2025. Between Q2 2024 and Q1 2025, Seraphim’s Space Index showed that Europe had 168 deals in the space industry, hot on the heels of 181 deals in Asia, and 207 deals in the US.
Lower average deal size is the main thing holding Europe back from the total investment numbers seen in the US and Asia.
“Europe has really suffered, ultimately, from every single round…on average, being 50% of the round size in the US. There’s just not been this growth capital in Europe,” Mark Boggett, Seraphim’s co-founder and CEO, told Payload. “But I think this trend is going to accelerate.”
Defensive attitudes: Three things are happening simultaneously, which have made investors more willing to bet on space in Europe.
- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 highlighted the increased importance of European defense capabilities—and drove investors to recognize space as an operational domain for future conflicts.
- The Trump administration in the US highlighted Europe’s desire to build independent, sovereign capabilities, and extend partnerships both within the bloc and to other countries.
- The sustained success of many space businesses—seen most recently with Voyager Technologies’ IPO—showed many investors that space is a decadal theme, with serious upside potential.
These shifting mindsets mean more newcomers are flipping through space pitch decks.
“We are seeing increasing interest from generalist funds in defense and space propositions, and there’s also a shift in the conversation…Three years ago defense investing seemed like a tricky topic for a lot of these funds, and today the narrative on defense investing is in terms of things like protecting national infrastructure, energy security, and prosperity,” Shruti Iyengar, UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund space investment lead at Future Planet Capital, told Payload.
New money: Far more public funds are available for space and defense ventures, which is also driving capital accessibility in Europe. In a region where public and private capital go hand-in-hand, these government-driven spending increases have a multiplying effect on space and defense.
In recent years, multiple public coffers have opened up to such investments.
- In 2023, the European Investment Fund earmarked €600M for space investment fund managers.
- The same year, Italy rerouted €4.6B in national and European recovery and resilience funds to the aerospace sector.
- This year, the European Innovation Council kicked off a new accelerator fund, designating €50M to improve space capabilities.
- In May, the UK’s Mansion House Accord unlocked tens of billions in pension-fund investments, some of which could find their way into defense and space.
- Norway is also considering opening up its €1.8T sovereign wealth fund to invest in defense.
Show your work: Look Up Space, a French space surveillance startup, is a perfect example of these NewSpace attitudes in action. Last week, Look Up closed a €50M Series A to develop its radar network and provide sovereign space traffic management capabilities to France and the rest of Europe.
The funding round included €24M in equity—led by ETF Partners, with participation from Leadwind and KFUnd—plus €15M in non-dilutive funding from the EU, and ~€11M in debt financing from banking institutions. The investment marks the second space company in ETF Partners’ portfolio, and the first for KFund and Leadwind.
“The first trigger was the Ukraine conflict, and the second was the Trump election,” Look Up CEO Michel Friedling told Payload. “It was much more difficult in October and November speaking with VCs. Now everybody wants to build a big fund to fund and support young companies in the defense sector.”
