VC Column

SpaceTech startups raised just over $535m in VC investment globally in July, led by one big investment in each of the major spacetech VC ecosystems. The U.S. and China, the two biggest ecosystems for spacetech funding so far this year, each saw one megaround. In the U.S., broadband satellite provider Astranis raised $200m for their Omega constellation, and in China (Jiangsu) Deep Blue Aerospace raised 1b RMB ($139m) for liquid recovery and reuse launch vehicles.

Six months into 2024, with just short of $4b in space-tech investments made so far this year, fascinating trends lead the way in VCs’ preference on space-tech investments. SpaceWatch has covered every investment into space-tech by VCs this year, and you can catch up on those articles here – but in the meantime, here are 5 trends to be aware of in the space-tech investing world.

After a three-month lull, and ahead of the summer venture funding lull, spacetech funding shot up in June, with 25 deals worth $737.72m. Together, the first six months of the year total $3.9b venture capital invested into space-tech, setting the industry up for a $7.8b pace on the year. A pair of Chinese startups captured nearly half of overall funding this month, with Beijing Tianbing Technology aka Space Pioneer raising 1.5b RMB ($206.37m) and Mino Space raising 1b RMB ($137.59m).

Five years ago, a pace of $270m per month in venture investment in the space industry would have been ground-breaking. In 2024, it’s a down month: the second lowest month of the year in terms of venture investment. Still, if the current flow of venture capital into the space industry continues at the rate of the first five months of the year, $7.6b of venture capital will have flowed into space-tech startups by the end of 2024.

April was another banner month in VC investment, with $472m total invested across 26 deals. Across four months, the global space tech VC ecosystem now nears $3b, indicating 2024 could be one of the strongest years in history for investment in the sector.

After a behemoth month of space-tech investment in February ($1.7b), global venture investment in space-tech fell back to earth in March with only $93.96m invested. Europe held three of the four largest investments this month: Multiverse Computing in Spain (€25m), Mbryonics in Ireland (€17.5m), and Blackwave in Germany ($6.6m), with South Africa’s Simera Sense (€13.5m) rounding out the top-four.

If the space-tech industry was lumbering towards the launchpad in January ($475m globally), then February was liftoff: space-tech startups raised a whopping $1.7b in funding in February.The month was bolstered by a massive $932m public-private investment into China’s Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST), but also featured a $355m investment into RocketLabs (US) and a €85m investment into UnseenLabs (France). These megadeals join 30 smaller deals in a historically strong month for spacetech startups worldwide.

2024 is off to a strong start for space-tech startups raising capital in the VC space, with over $475m USD (442m EUR) raised in January alone. At this pace, however, the annual space tech investment ecosystem projects to an annual $5.8b, a contraction versus 2023 levels of approximately $7.1b. Across 25 deals, and an average of $19m per deal, just under half of deals were located in the United States (7) and United Kingdom (5) with strong presence in Europe coming from France (3) and Italy (3).