deltaVision, the German fluidic systems manufacturer, announced a €10.2M ($11.6M) funding round today to expand the company’s manufacturing capacity and accelerate development of hardware for in-orbit refueling capabilities.
KT Ventures and Valemount Capital—which extended a ~€1.2M ($1.37M) convertible loan to deltaVision ~1.5 years ago—co-led the round, which included additional participation from Futury Capital and other undisclosed sources.
Going global: deltaVision plans to use the new capital to fund two parallel expansion efforts, according to CEO Alex Plebuch:
- 70% will be used to grow the company’s manufacturing output by a factor of five. The company also plans to open a new US manufacturing facility to hunt larger contracts for its flagship valves and fluidics products.
- 30% will finance an R&D effort as the company explores new products to support future in-orbit refueling capabilities, and expands into different subsystems, including electronics and sensors.
The round comes just in time for spacecraft manufacturers who are finding their supply chains increasingly strained by growing industry demand. To meet this, deltaVision plans to begin operations at a new US facility by the end of the year.
“The space industry is accelerating so much but…there’s a lot of instability in the supply chain,” Plebuch told Payload. “We can deliver a lot of stuff from Germany, from Europe…[and] several customers from the US are working with us, but for the big programs—national programs, more legacy-type of companies—we need US-based manufacturing.”
Insane vert: deltaVision’s ultimate goal is to act as a one-stop-shop for fluidic subsystems, which means building out a wider suite of products to support increasingly complex deep-space and defense-focused missions.
While the new capital will help to finance that technical expansion, the company is already making strides.
- ESA tapped deltaVision to supply 50+ components for its Argonaut lunar lander, and deltaVision plans to repurpose those technologies to sell into the commercial lunar lander market, according to Plebuch.
- For refueling tech, deltaVision is building quickly in an attempt to ensure its subsystems become industry standard, as the market narrows in on interoperability of refueling architectures.
The strategy is all about building a robust manufacturing base to offer capable subsystems and the shortest delivery times in the market—measured in weeks, not months.
“We want to make space industrial…where you have recurrent production, you have lower pricing,” Plebuch said, adding it appears his company is meeting the pain point in the market. “I always enjoy big CEOs complaining about the supply chain, because I know that we’re doing the right thing.”
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The UK is putting money behind a simple proposition: It cannot afford to lease critical space capabilities.
The UK government announced £62M ($83.3M) in new funds Monday to develop domestic satcom and space technologies. The pitch is to foster dual-use capabilities that can both build commercial markets and enhance national security.
“Space is not just a scientific frontier; it is a strategic one,” Space Minister Liz Lloyd said at the Farnborough International Airshow. “If we do not build national capabilities at home, we become overly dependent on others for technologies we cannot afford to be without.”
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