By Raphael Roettgen
August 2020 sure proved that a lot of private capital can flow into the space sector, with a total of US$2.2 billion. Sure, SpaceX represented over 80% of this total – the company’s latest filing shows $1.9 billion raised of a potential total of $2.066 billion – but even without it, the sector total would have come to almost $400 million, distributed across geographies and subsectors.
Deals have also continued, including Kymeta’s acquisition of satellite services provider Lepton and KBR acquiring Centauri, a technology solutions provider to the U.S. Government whose areas of expertise include space. We are also keeping an eye on the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings of satellite communications provider Speedcast, where the company has already attracted bids from interested parties.
| Company | US$m | Country | Subsector | Investors |
| SpaceX | 1901.4 | U.S. | Diversified (Launch, Satcomm) | Fidelity, others
|
| iSpace | 172.0 | China | Launch | Beijing Financial Street Capital Operation Center, CICC Alpha, Taizhonghe Capital
|
| Kymeta | 85.2 | U.S. | Satcomm (antennas) | Bill Gates, S. Douglas Hutcheson |
| ABL Space Systems* | 49.0
|
U.S. | Launch | Venrock, New Science Ventures, Lynett Capital, and Lockheed Martin Ventures.
|
| AXESS Networks | 42.5
(debt)
|
Spain | Satcomm | Alantra, Cofides
|
| ispace | 28.0 | Japan | Lunar | Incubate Fund, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company, Space Frontier Foundation, Takasago Thermal Engineering
|
| Pixxel | 5.0 | India | Remote sensing | Blume Ventures, growX ventures, Inventus Capital, Lightspeed India Partners, Ryan Johnson, Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs
|
| Warpspace | 3.0 | Japan | Satcomm
(optical)
|
Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, others |
| Mecano ID | 1.2 | France | Spacecraft components
|
French government entities (grant) |
| Morpheus Space | NA | Germany | Spacecraft components (propulsion) | Airbus Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Lavrock Ventures, Pallas Ventures, Techstars, Vsquared Ventures
|
| Skygate Technologies | NA | Japan | Satcomm
(ground stations) |
Keio Innovation Initiative
|
*closed on 31-Mar-2020
