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2025 kicked off with a strong month in the space tech industry, with 24 companies raising $836m in venture capital.
The month was led by a handful of larger US-based Series C rounds, with Stoke Space ($260m) leading the way with funding to support the development of their 100% reusable medium-lift rocket. Loft Orbital ($170m) and Firehawk Aerospace ($60m) also logged big rounds to start the year.
Notably, only one Chinese investment took place this month, an undisclosed Series B investment into ElipSpace – this represents China’s lowest month for spacetech funding since at least January 2024.
As global instability and the threat of war rises, defensetech and dual-use space tech appears to be increasing as well. Castelion ($70m Series A and $30m venture debt) and Firehawk ($60m) represent some of the largest rounds in dual-use spacetech in the last year.
All deals in January 2025, by $ (descending)
- Stoke Space (USA) – 100% reusable medium-lift rocket – raised $260m.
- Loft Orbital (USA) – sallite infrastructure as a service – raised $170m.
- Castelion (USA) – long range hypersonic strike weapons – raised $100m.
- Firehawk Aerospace (USA) – hybrid rocket engines – raised $60m.
- Interstellar Tech. (Japan) – Rocket development and space transportation – raised ¥70b.
- BeZero Carbon (UK) – carbon ratings via satellite inspection – raised $32m.
- Shippeo (France) – transportation visibility platform – raised $30m.
- Orbex Space (UK) – UK-based launch services – raised £23m.
- Meteomatics (USA) – high-altitude drones for weather intelligence – raised $22m.
- Druid Software (Ireland) – cellular network software platforms – raised $20m.
- EARTH AI (USA) – predictive explorer for clean energy metals – raised $20m.
- Astrome (India) – MM-wave wireless networks – raised $10m.
- Spaceium (USA) – in-space infrastructure – raised $6.3m.
- Phase Four (USA) – in-space propulsion systems – raised $6m.
- Insight Terra (United Kingdom) – climate tech risk management platform – raised $5.7m.
- Leakmited (France) – water utilities monitoring via satellite – raised €5m.
- Attentive AI (India) – landscaping mapping – raised $5m.
- Constelli (India) – signal processing solutions – raised $3m.
- Naco Technologies (Latvia) – nano-coating for green energy systems – raised €2.5m.
- OrbitAID (India) – satellite life extension solutions – raised $1.5m.
- Dream Aerospace (India) – satellite propulsion systems – raised Rs3 crore.
Raised an undisclosed amount:
- EllipSpace (China) – satellite comms solution.
- Venus Aerospace (USA) – hypersonic engine technologies.
- Relativity Space (USA) – 3d-printed rockets.
Month-over-month comparison to 2024
In January 2024, 27 companies raised $533m.
In January 2025, 24 companies raised $836m.
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 eVTOL vehicles).
Dealroom estimates that in December 2024, 24 space-tech companies raised a total of approx. $836m USD. As of publication, the dashboard also includes 13 additional deals, worth $57.7m, which we classify as either not space-tech, or not venture capital. The VentureSpace list includes three companies not listed on Dealroom’s dashboard at time of publication: Relativity Space, Dream Aerospace, OrbitAID, Constelli.
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.
