by Blaine Curcio
13 January 2026. – 2025 was a record-setting year for Chinese space industry fundraising, with companies raising ¥26.6B (US$3.81 billion) (at our mid-point estimate). Chinese space companies saw a record number of funding rounds in the past year, with 137 rounds throughout the year. This compares to an average of 74 rounds per year from 2020-2024.
Satellite manufacturers led the way for the first time, with more than ¥10B (US$ 1.43 billion) raised by companies including MinoSpace, Spacety, and a bunch of newer, more specialized manufacturers. This reflects an interesting situation in Chinese space today: the big, well-established manufacturers like Spacety and MinoSpace are raising record funding rounds, and yet, smaller startup satellite manufacturers (companies like JT-Space) are also doing well.
Notably, none of these manufacturers are building substantive numbers of satellites for China’s big constellations (though MinoSpace has built a few), indicating that investors see opportunities beyond building satellites for SatNet and Thousand Sails.
Similarly, the ground segment had a heck of a year, with more than ¥2B (US$ 283 million) of funds raised, an all-time high. Leading ground station company EMPOSAT led the way with 2 big funding rounds, including a D-round in the last couple of weeks of the year.
Ground segment is emerging as a hot topic due to all the constellation activity, and companies like EMPOSAT are raising record sums. It has not all been smooth sailing, though, with EMPOSAT having the plug pulled on their entry into the Czech Republic in early 2025.
Meanwhile, Launch companies saw a notable bump to ¥8.5B (US$ 1.218 billion), with China’s launch shortage leading to growing investor interest in the sector. Launch funding has been spread around quite a few companies, with no clear winner yet emerging from China’s multi-horse commercial launch race.
However, funding in the industry was surprisingly dispersed, with the five largest funding rounds (from five different companies) accounting for only ~47% of total funds raised, and the next 10 largest (from nine different companies) accounting for a further 15%. After the top 15, there were around 40 more rounds of more than US$10M, with literally dozens of companies topping up their bank accounts by 8 figures or more.
Moreover, the industry continued to see many new entrants raising early rounds, 64% of the 137 rounds being Seed, Angel, or A rounds (incl. A+, A++, etc.). At the same time, quite a few companies showed signs of reaching the big leagues, with 2025 seeing 10 D-rounds, compared to only 5 D-rounds in total between 2014-2024.
Notably, Chinese cities with limited space heritage (Chengdu) along with smaller cities (Wuxi, Jiaxing, Taishan) were big investors during the year. As a result, the funding from sub-national governments reached a new high in 2025, with ~60% of funds raised coming from the regional governments. However, private capital also continued to grow, with Central Government funding taking a backseat and seeing its share decline from 26% to 18%.
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