SpaceWatch.Global An independent perspective on space
by Raphael Roettgen
August’s financing table is again led by a space company raising funds via a proposed merger with a SPAC: VirginOrbit who may raise up to US$483 million* from this deal. Over two dozen other rounds raised a total in excess of US$700 million.
Besides yet another SPAC, other noteworthy deal structure were Swiss IoT constellation’s Astrocast’s, which combined a private raise with an immediate direct listing on the Oslo stock exchange, and Endurosat joining so far small but growing club of space companies raising venture debt from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
On the M&A side, it became known via an FCC filing that SpaceX had acquired U.S. IoT constellation operator Swarm. This is a rare deal for SpaceX (at least as far as is publicly known), a company that has the reputation to prefer to do things in-house. The most frequent guess in the space community about the potential deal rationale appears to be that it was an “aqui-hire.”
Reminder: if you are following the new space sector and are looking for a concise introduction to its trends, main business activities, and possible outlook (and if you happen to speak German!) you may be interested in my new book I recently published with SpaceWatch.Global – you can check it out here.
* Sum of cash in trust plus PIPE proceeds, assuming no redemptions
| Company | US$m | Country | Subsector | Investors |
| Virgin Orbit | 483.0
(SPAC) |
United States | launch | Boeing, AE Industrial Partners, NextGen, others
|
| OneWeb | 300.0 | United Kingdom | satcomm | Hanwha Systems
|
| MinoSpace | 77.0 | China | remote sensing | Hengxu Capital, SAIC Capital, Auto Capital, Ruijian Capital, Wenzhou Transportation Group
|
| Hermeus | 60.0
(“strategic financing”)
|
United States | launch | USAF, others
|
| Sceye | 50.0 | United States | remote sensing | KittyHawk Ventures
|
| Astrocast | 49.0 | Switzerland | satcomm (IoT) | Adit, Palantir, DAA, Primo Space, others
|
| Space Transportation | 46.0 | China | launch | Guosheng Group, Keli Venture Capital, Matrix Partners China, Oriza Seed Capital (Oriza Yuandian), Source Code Capital, Summitview Capital, Volcanics Venture, Zhencheng Capital
|
| Lingkong Tianxing | 46.3 | China | launch | Matrix Partners China, Shanghai Guosheng (Group), SummitView Capital, Keli Capital, Oriza Holdings
|
| Ispace Technologies | 46.0 | Japan | lunar | Aizawa Asset Management, Aizawa Securities, HiJoJo Partners, Incubate Fund, Innovation Engine, Katsunori Sago, SBI Investment
|
| Kairos Aerospace | 26.0 | United States | remote sensing | John Crane, OGCI Climate Investments, Energy Innovation Capital, DCVC
|
| Latent AI | 19.0 | United States | NA | Autotech Ventures, 40 North Ventures, Lockheed Martin, Booz Allen Hamilton, Future Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures, Perot Jain, Gravity Ranch, SRI Ventures,
|
| Skywatch | 17.2 | Canada | remote sensing | Bullpen Capital, BDC Venture Capital, Space Capital, Drive Capital, Golden Ventures
|
| EnduroSat | 11.9
(venture debt) |
Bulgaria | spacecraft components | European Investment Bank
|
| Xplore | 9.0 | United States | spacecraft components | KittyHawk Ventures, VU Venture Partners, Venture University
|
| Urban Sky | 4.2 | United States | remote sensing | NA |
| SpeQtral | 3.3 | United States | satcomm (QKD) | Xora Innovation, others
|
| Alpine Advanced Materials | 2.5 | United States | spacecraft components | NA |
| Benchmark Space Systems | 1.1 | United States | Remote sensing | Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), The Flying Object, FreshTracks Capital, LaunchCapital, Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies
|
| Spaceit | 1.0 | Estonia | services | Icebreaker.vc |
| Kall Morris | 0.3 | United States | orbit services | NA |
| Epsilon3 | 0.1 | United States | services | Y Combinator |
| Latitudo40 | 0.1 | Italy | remote sensing – downstream | EXPERT DOJO |
| Beijing Interstellar Development Technology
|
NA | China | launch | Inno Angel Fund, others |
| Cemvita Factory Inc. | NA | United States | space resources | 8090 Partners, Climate Capital, Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, Seldor Capital |
| HEO Robotics | NA | Australia | orbit services | David Harding, Tim Parsons, Matt Ryall, Christian Thaler-Wolski and Phil Hayes-St Clair, Solai Valliappan |
| Inversion Space | NA | United States | orbit services | Kohala Ventures |
| Istar Space Technology | NA | China | spacecraft components | Shenzhen Capital Group, ZJU Joint Innovation Investment, CDH Investments
|
| Jiutian Xingge | NA | China | Manufacturing | Essential Capital (China) |
| Vyoma | NA | Germany | orbit services | Atlantic Labs |
| Wyvern | NA | Canada | remote sensing | Red Thread Ventures |
Raphael Roettgen provides financial advice to and invests proprietary capital in space companies as a managing director and founder of E2MC. He also advises institutional investors and governments on space. Previously, Raphael has held senior roles at global investment banks and hedge funds and was also a fintech entrepreneur in Brazil. He holds degrees in finance from Wharton, machine learning from PUC-Rio and space studies from the International Space University, as well as the CFA and FRM charters.
