by Raphael Roettgen
September did not bring us any SPAC merger announcements nor blockbuster triple-digit private financing rounds. On the SPAC front, though, it is worth noting that several previously announced mergers (ArQit, BlackSky, Redwire) secured shareholder approval.
On the M&A side, we saw deals like BAE Systems acquiring In-Space Missions in the UK and Spire Global acquiring Canadian exactEarth. The latter is another example, following Astra’s acquisition of Apollo Fusion, of a newly SPAC cash-enriched space company using part of that cash for an add-on acquisition.
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 happen to speak German!) you may be interested in my book I recently published with Spacewatch.Global – you can check it out here.
| Company | US$m | Country | Subsector | Investors |
| Isotropic Systems | 37.0 | UK | satcomm (terminals) | AE Industrial Partners, Orbital Ventures, Seraphim Capital, The Firmament Group
|
| HySpecIQ | 20.0 | U.S. | remote sensing (hyperspectral)
|
Peter Thiel |
| Near Space Labs | 13.0 | U.S. | remote sensing (stratospheric) | Crosslink Capital, Leadout Capital, Toyota Ventures, Wireframe Ventures |
| Earth Observant | 11.1 | U.S. | remote sensing
|
N/A
|
| Orbit Fab | 10.0 | U.S. | orbit services (refueling)
|
Asymmetry Ventures, Good Growth Capital, Jackson Moses, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Marubeni, Northrop Grumman, SpaceFund, Type One Ventures
|
| Kleos Space | 9.2 | Australia | remote sensing (RF)
|
Perennial Value Mgmt., Thornyey Group, others
|
| Cambium Biomaterials | 8.0 | U.S. | other (materials) | N/A |
| Xona Space Systems | 8.0 | U.S. | GNSS | Seraphim Capital, Toyota Ventures, Daniel Ammann, Ryan Johnson, 1517 Fund, Stellar Solutions
|
| Starfish Space | 7.0 | U.S. | orbit services (space tugs) | Boost VC, Hypothesis, Liquid 2 Ventures, MaC Venture Capital, NFX, PSL Ventures
|
| Astrome Technologies | 3.4 | India | satcomm | ArtPark, IAN Fund, Impact Collective, Lakshmi Narayanan, Urania Ventures
|
| Psionic | 2.4 | U.S. | spacecraft components (navigation) | Ridgeline, others
|
| Payload Aerospace | 2.2 | Spain | launch | CDTI, Stornoway Portfolio Management
|
| Aurora Propulsion Technologies | 2.0 | Finland | spacecraft components
|
Practica Capital, Tesi, The Flying Object |
| Space Craft Beer | 0.8 | China | other (beer)
|
N/A |
| Payload | 0.7 | U.S. | other (media)
|
Winklevoss Capital, Andy Weissman, Sam McIngvale |
| Juniper Unmanned | 0.4 | U.S. | remote sensing – downstream
|
N/A |
| Turion Space | N/A | U.S. | orbit services (space debris) | FAST, GETTYLAB, Y Combinator
|
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.
