Spaceium, an in-orbit refueling service, raised a $6.3M seed round led by Initialized Capital with participation from 15 additional VC firms and angel investors.
The Y-Combinator-backed startup plans to use the funding to demonstrate its refueling technology in orbit and expand its team.
“Fuel for spacecraft is a massive bottleneck in the industry,” Spaceium CEO Ashi Dissanayake told Payload. “The space economy is growing, and refueling is one of its key components. So, investors were very quick to make offers.”
Building the superhighway: Spaceium intends to build a network of gas stations in orbit, facilitating a “space superhighway” by the end of the decade, Dissanayake said.
Spaceium’s core technology is built around proprietary fuel tanks that can store propellant for years and advanced robotic arms for in-space refueling operations—both of which the team developed in-house.
“With launch costs already steadily decreasing, we think Spaceium is pursuing the next highest-leverage orbital financial solution,” Andrew Sather, partner at Initialized Capital, said in a press release. “In-space refueling will greatly expand the capabilities, and 4x the productive lifespans, of their clients’ on-orbit assets.”
