SpaceWatch.Global is on a mission: to share with you every single space-tech deal globally, every month. We transparently show who’s included, and who’s not included in our list and explain why.
Funding for space-tech startups in September rebounded from a moribund-as-usual August with $334m of funding across 21 deals.
It was a strong showing for European startups this month, who netted half of all space-tech investments globally, led by strong rounds of €50m by D-Orbit (Italy), €44m by Xerotech (Ireland), and €30m for Sateliot (Spain).
Another massive Chinese investment, a Series C investment into launch vehicle systems manufacturer iSpace (aka Interstellar Glory), led the way this month at CNY700m ($99.82m). Xinding Capital and Sichuan Industrial Revitalization Fund Investment Group Co., Ltd led the round.
Deal of the Month
This month’s Deal of the Month is Longshot Space, who raised $5m, led by Starship Ventures with participation from Myelin VC and AngelList.
Their goal: “accelerate payloads of up to 100 KG to Mach 5+ at acceleration loads that your cell phone can survive, and at prices significantly lower than current rocket-based accelerator systems.”
In other words – “let’s build a space gun!” – as the company gleefully announced on LinkedIn.
Longshot Space’s technology is based on accelerating payloads safely through a long barrel, using multiple injections of accelerant gases. Their current prototype has achieved Mach 4.6, but requires a move away from their densely populated Oakland, CA headquarters to move forward (“We’d prefer not to blow ourselves and other people up,” CEO Mike Grace said in a recent interview, via TechCrunch).
The concept of projectiles pushed out of a gun by gases is nothing new – Grace begins an explanation of their technology discussing long-range weaponry used by Germany in the second World War.
Previous investors Sam Altman, Tim Draper, and SpaceFund participated in Longshot Space’s pre-seed round in 2022.
SpaceWatch will publish more information on Longshot Space this week – stay tuned for more.
All deals in September 2024, by $ (descending)
- iSpace, aka Interstellar Glory (China) – launch vehicle systems – raised CNY700m.
- D-Orbit (Italy) – in-orbit services – raised €50m.
- Xerotech (Ireland) – Hibernium® battery pack platform – raised €44m.
- Sateliot (Spain) – 5g connectivity from space – raised €30m.
- Starfish Space (USA) – satellite servicing – raised $21m.
- ATLAS Space Operations (USA) – Ground Station/Software as a Service – raised $15m.
- Swegan (Sweden) – semiconductor manufacturing (epiwafers) – raised €12m.
- Quantum Optics Jena (Germany) – quantum technology for cybersecurity – raised €8.5m.
- Reflect Orbital (USA) – reflecting sunlight onto solar panels – raised $6.5m.
- Aquark Technologies (United Kingdom) – quantum technology – raised €5m.
- Longshot Space (USA) – kinetic launch system (“space gun”) – raised $5m.
- Mesa Quantum (USA) – quantum sensing – raised $3.7m.
- Sustain (aka Sanyuan) Aerospace (China) – space operations – raised RMB20m.
- AstroX (Japan) – air-launched satellite orbital injection rockets – raised ¥400m.
- VEOWARE (Belgium) – satellite motion control systems – raised €2.5m.
- Innovative Space Carrier (Japan) – space transporation systems – raised ¥300m.
- GalaxEye Space (India) – multi-sensor earth observation – raised $2m.
- Satim (Poland) – AI for SAR object detection/classification – raised €1.4m.
- EarthEye Space (Singapore) – satellite tasking platform – raised $1.5m.
Raised an undisclosed amount:
- Agile Space Industries (USA) – in-space chemical propulsion
- Polaris Spaceplanes (Germany) – reusable space launch / hypersonic transport system
Estimating the size of the Spacetech industry
SpaceWatch.Global estimates that so far in 2024, 221 companies have raised $4.96b of venture equity funding.
- January: 27 deals, $533m
- February: 35 deals, $1.79b
- March: 12 deals, $94m
- April: 26 deals, $472m
- May: 22 deals, $270m
- June: 25 deals, $738m
- July: 31 deals, $535m.
- Aug: 19 deals, $170m.
- Sept: 21 deals, $334m.
Benchmarking our estimate
The Dealroom/ESA Space Tech Dashboard is a great way to benchmark our estimate. Generally, the dashboard has a more expansive definition of spacetech (including, for example, terrestrial drones, ground sensors, or startups using GPS for golfing scopes).
Dealroom estimates that in August 2024, 17 space-tech companies raised a total of approx. $345m USD. As of publication, the dashboard also includes 12 additional deals, worth $88m, which we classify as either not space-tech, or not venture capital.
Get in touch at [email protected] and we are happy to share more about our methodology, who’s included, who’s not, and more information about each investment.
