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Aavuus, a Finnish deep-tech company building infrastructure for a new era of orbital safety, led by Joonas Jokela, Jouni Peltoniemi, and Brian Dunne, has secured a pre-seed investment from Maki.vc. Improving Space Traffic Awareness. Aavuus is building a global network of ground-based laser tracking stations designed to provide significantly more precise orbital data than today's commercial tracking systems. The company is targeting a growing challenge in Low Earth Orbit: the

Invisible-Light Labs, a TU Wien spin-off developing infrared analysis technology for nanoscale materials, led by Dr. Josiane P. Lafleur, MBA, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Silvan Schmid, Dr. Hajrudin Bešić, M.Sc., and Dr. Niklas Luhmann, M.Sc., has closed a €1.5 million pre-seed round co-led by XISTA Science Ventures and aws Gründungsfonds, with participation from Fund F. Accelerating Commercialization And Product Expansion. The funding will support the global commercialization of the com

ERC System, closing Europe's critical capability gap in the sky, led by Dr. David Löbl, Dr. Christopher Schropp, and Maximilian Oligschläger, has announced the launch of “Victor”, a dual-use heavy-lift cargo UAS designed for critical missions in fields such as defense, commercial logistics, and disaster response. Unveiled publicly at the ILA Berlin 2026, Victor is designed to address a key military logistics challenge by providing a scalable, deployable solution for...

Isar Aerospace, developing next-generation rockets for sustainable access to space for small and medium satellites and satellite constellations, led by Daniel Metzler, Josef Fleischmann, and Stella Guillen, has signed a EUR 270m Series D round to expand operations worldwide and provide sovereign space capabilities for Europe, NATO, and allies. The round is backed by new investors Island Green Capital and Molten Ventures, with strong participation from existing investors HV Ca

ICEYE, building actionable intelligence for resilience, readiness & response, led by Rafal Modrzewski, Pekka Laurila, and Eric Jensen, has raised EUR 450 million (USD 520 million) in a primary Series F funding round led by General Atlantic, at a valuation of over EUR 10 billion (USD 12 billion). Additional investors include Solidium, Tesi, Varma, Ilmarinen, Lifeline Ventures, as well as Nokia from Finland, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), and TCV. Together with a secondary p

Skyfora, building hyper-local weather intelligence, led by Fredrik Borgström, Kim Kaisti, Jostein Mælan, Marja Mattila, and Christoffer von Schantz, has raised €6.5 million. The round includes equity participation from Eviny Ventures, Ugly Duckling Ventures, Lumo Labs, and the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, alongside non-dilutive funding from Business Finland. Rising Demand For Weather Intelligence. The funding comes as demand for high-resolution weather data continu

Juno Propulsion, building the next-generation rocket propulsion with rotating detonation combustion, led by Alexis Harroun and Ari Martinez, has announced the successful close of a $1.4 million pre-seed financing round led by SOSV, with participation from Hypernova Fund, Leslie Ventures, Activate, Collaborative Fund, Safar Partners, and Cape Fear Ventures. The funding will accelerate development and flight qualification of Project IRIS, Juno’s rotating detonation combustion (

PhysicsX, a physical AI company on a mission to accelerate innovation and overhaul what engineering and manufacturing look like today, led by Robin Tuluie, Jacomo Corbo, and Nicolas Haag, has announced an oversubscribed $300 million Series C financing at a valuation of approximately $2.4 billion. The round is led by Temasek, with participation from new investors M&G Investments and Intrepid Growth Partners, alongside existing investors including Applied Materials, Atomico, Ge

Neworbit, engineering earth's lowest orbiting satellites, led by Anatolii Papulov and Ruslan Rakhimov, has raised $18.5 million in an oversubscribed Series A, led by Voyager and joined by angel investors including David Kirk (former Chief Scientist at NVIDIA) and Lawrence Leuschner (co-founder and former CEO of TIER Mobility), the family office Custos, and continued backing from Atlantic.vc, Lifeline Ventures, LGF, and Illusian. Commercial aircraft fly at around 10 kilometers

Muon Space, designing, building, and operating satellite constellations optimized for your mission, led by Jonny Dyer(CEO and Co-Founder), Paul Day(VP Production and Co-Founder), Dan McCleese(Chief Scientist and Co-Founder), Reuben Rohrschneider(Chief Mission Architect and Co-Founder), and Pascal Stang(CTO and Co-Founder), has unveiled Condor-Ultra, its newest spacecraft platform developed for high-power, networked constellations of hundreds to thousands of satellites. Built

Helion, a Washington-based fusion energy company, led by Dr. David Kirtley(Founder & CEO), Chris Pihl(Co-Founder & CTO), and Dr. George Votroubek(Co-Founder & Principal Scientist), has announced a $465 million Series G investment round, bringing the total invested to date in Helion to $1.5 billion and valuing the company at $15.5 billion post-money. The raise was led by Thrive Capital, with participation from additional new investors, including Alta Park Capital, Anti Fund, B

AstroForge, a deep-space mining company on a mission to extract valuable metals from asteroids - starting with PGMs, or platinum group metals, led by Matt Gialich and the team, has assembled the major flight hardware of DeepSpace-2 on its integration floor for the first time. Making Deep Space Access Routine. After assembling the major flight hardware of its DeepSpace-2 spacecraft, the company is preparing for a fourth-quarter launch and the next phase of testing and refinem

IMU Biosciences, decoding the immune system with unprecedented resolution and scale to transform how we understand, diagnose, and treat disease, led by Adam Laing, Mario Cantero, John Baker, and Thomas Hayday, has successfully brought its Series A to over $53 million (£40 million) in an oversubscribed financing round, co-led by IQ Capital and Molten Ventures, and supported by The British Business Bank, and Meltwind alongside existing investors. Building a Comprehensive Map o

Focused Energy, the world’s leading laser fusion company, led by Thomas Forner, Prof. Dr. Markus Roth, and the team, has raised $240 million in a Series A financing round. In addition to RWE, the investors include the Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation SPRIND, the European Innovation Council Fund, and the previous lead investor, Prime Movers Lab. Strategic Backing for Fusion Commercialization. The oversubscribed funding round attracted investors from Germany, Europe,

OQC, developing enterprise-ready quantum solutions, led by Gerald Mullally, Dr Peter Leek, and the team, has closed an oversubscribed £260 million ($350m) Series C funding round, Europe’s largest-ever private funding round for a quantum computing company. Bullhound Capital led the round, which included investment from the British Business Bank, Fynveur (advised by Invus), COFIDES, RCM Private Markets Fund managed by Rokos Capital Management (US) LP, Alpha Edison, Fulcrum Asse

Quobly, building industrial silicon-based quantum computers, led by Maud Vinet, Tristan Meunier, and the team, has announced the closing of a €115 million Series A financing led by Bpifrance, SEALSQ, and STMicroelectronics, with participation from the European Innovation Council (EIC Fund), Blast, ALIAD (Air Liquide Venture Capital), and existing investor Innovacom, bringing together leading industrial, sovereign, and deeptech investors. Existing shareholders also include the

Astrobotic, a pioneering space exploration company aiming to make space accessible to the world, led by John Thornton and others, has announced that it has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Voyager Technologies (NYSE: VOYG). The transaction marks a major milestone in Astrobotic’s nearly two‑decade mission to make the Moon accessible and to build the infrastructure needed for a continuous U.S. presence on the lunar surface. Strengthening Voyager’s Lunar Ambitions. Un

NewLimit, radically extending human healthspan, led by Jacob Kimmel, Brian Armstrong, Blake Byers, and the team, has closed a $435M Series C led by Founders Fund alongside new investors Thrive Capital, Greenoaks, and Quiet Capital, and returning investors Kleiner Perkins, Abstract, Nat Friedman/Daniel Gross, Valor Equity Partners, Eli Lilly Ventures, Human Capital, and others. The company plans to begin human clinical trials next year following the discovery of a prototype th

Impulse Space, the in-space mobility leader, led by Tom Mueller and the team, has raised $500 million in Series D funding, co-led by 137 Ventures and BANNER VC, bringing the company’s total capital raised to over $1 billion. Additional participating investors include Founder’s Fund, Lux Capital, and Linse Capital. Scaling Infrastructure for In-Space Mobility. The funding will support team expansion and manufacturing growth as Impulse Space accelerates development of in-space

Firefly Space, a space and defense technology company that enables government and commercial customers to launch, land, and operate in space, anywhere, anytime, led by Jason Kim and the team, has announced it was awarded a $75 million subcontract from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to deliver four drones to the Moon’s south pole in support of the agency’s MoonFall mission, targeted to launch no earlier than 2028. MoonFall is part of the first phase of NASA’s Moon Base

Vast Space, building next-gen space stations, led by Jed McCaleb, Max Haot, and the team, has announced its commitment to establish its European headquarters in Paris and an agreement with the Government of France, for two missions involving two French astronauts: the sixth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station and the Haven-1 test flight, the first crewed mission to Vast’s Haven-1 commercial space station scheduled to launch in 2027 at the Choose Franc

PLD Space, unlocking rapid, reliable, and sustainable access to space, led by Ezequiel Sánchez, Raúl Torres, Raúl Verdú, and the team, has announced a €35 million investment in the development and deployment of its Launch Complex at the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) in Kourou (French Guiana) over the 2025-2026 period. Strengthening Europe’s Spaceport Ecosystem The investment makes PLD Space the first private company to deploy capital expenditure at this scale at the ELM-Diamant l

Invisix, a Netherlands-based semiconductor metrology company developing soft X-ray measurement systems for advanced logic and memory manufacturing, led by Christina Porter, Sietse van der Post, Roald Dogge, Hens van Ooijen, and the team, has raised an oversubscribed €20 million seed round, which includes Hitachi Ventures, Transition Ventures, imec.xpand, Doosan Investment Co., and a tier-1 semiconductor manufacturer. The funding will support team expansion, accelerate develop

Observable Space, a real-time observation platform powering ground and space optics, led by Dan Roelker, Rick Hedrick, Connor Poole, and the team, has raised a $90 million Series A funding round, led by Lux Capital, co-led by Upfront Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, Island Green Capital, and RTX Ventures, and with participation from BRV Capital, Fathom Fund, and Venrex. The company has also announced a $94 million sole-sourced Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ

Orbital Industries, an AI-first industrial company using frontier AI to design, manufacture, and ship the physical products the world needs, led by Jonathan Godwin, James Gin-Pollock, Daniel Miodovnik, and the team, has raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Plural. Existing and previous investors, NVentures (NVIDIA), Radical Ventures, Compound, and Fly Ventures also participated. The funding will support scaling Orbital’s data centre products, expanding its AI and eng

Virgin Galactic, harnessing spaceflight to expand the boundaries of exploration, innovation, and discovery to advance human progress, has announced that VSS Unity, its prototype Spaceship, has returned to the skies above Spaceport America in New Mexico for the first of several anticipated glide flights. These flights are designed to prepare the company’s pilots and operations teams ahead of new Spaceship operations. Mike Moses said that Unity’s glide and energy-management cha

Lucis, your health companion, helping you deeply understand your biology and take action to improve it, led by Max Berthelot and Baptiste Debever, has raised a $20 million Series A, led by Singular, with participation from General Catalyst, Y Combinator, and angels including investors behind Runna, Céline Lazorthes (Resilience), and Manu Lecomte. The round follows Lucis’s $8M seed raise four months ago, bringing total funding to $28M. Lucis will use the capital to expand acro

Quanscient, the multiphysics simulation platform for the AI era, led by Juha Riippi, Alexandre Halbach, Asser Lähdemäki, Valtteri Lahtinen, and Andrew Tweedie, has raised a €10 million Series A funding round led by Danish quantum fund 55 North and Austrian industrial investor B&C Group, with full re-participation from existing investors Maki.vc, Crowberry Capital, QAI Ventures, and First Fellow Partners. While AI has transformed many industries, hardware engineering continues

Quantum Bridge, unbreakable cybersecurity for the quantum era, led by Mattia Montagna, Hoi-Kwong Lo, and the team, has closed a US$8 million Series A funding round led by Primo Capital SGR and supported by a global syndicate of investors, including Wayra (Telefónica), Cadenza VC, Club degli Investitori angels, HPE, and Bacchus Venture Capital. Together with prior financing from investors, including Alumni Ventures and the University of Toronto, the round brings Quantum Bridge

Astrolab, the ultimate in planetary mobility, led by Jaret Matthews and the team, has announced NASA payload customers for its first lunar mission aboard the company’s FLIP (FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform) rover. FLIP will fly aboard Griffin-1 lander under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which supports missions to the Moon’s south pole as part of the Artemis campaign. The mission is scheduled for late 2026 and will mark FLIP’s lunar debut, carrying

Destinus, a European defence manufacturer with a particular focus on scalable strike and air-defence systems for European and allied armed forces, led by Mikhail Kokorich, has announced the accelerated start of the RUTA Block 3 program, developed for a 2,000 km-class long-range precision strike capability and extending the operationally validated RUTA family. The flight-test campaign is planned to begin in 2027. RUTA Block 3 builds on the existing RUTA architecture, which has

Intuitive Machines, a space technology, infrastructure, and services leader, led by Stephen Altemus and the team, has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd. (“Goonhilly”), a world-class deep space communications provider with major ground station assets in the United Kingdom and Goonhilly USA Inc. (dba COMSAT). The acquisition, including Goonhilly’s lunar and deep space communications, commercial satcom, and defense and se

Mantle8, unearthing natural hydrogen, led by Emmanuel Masini, has raised €31M in Series A funding led by Sandwater and includes Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Ecotechnologies 2 fund managed on behalf of the French government by Bpifrance, IP Group, Wind Capital, and Calderion (an Audacia-backed investment platform). This capital will fund the next two years of advanced natural hydrogen exploration and drilling. Mantle8 will deploy its technology platform to identify and rank p

Moment Energy, developing a new standard for commercial-scale energy storage, led by Edward Chiang and the team, announced it is building the world’s largest battery repurposing facility in Vancouver, British Columbia, over the next 6 weeks, marking a major step forward in scaling domestic energy storage infrastructure and the fastest in the world to scale battery manufacturing. The announcement follows the company’s $40M Series B, bringing total funding to over $100M and ref

Enhanced Radar, applied AI for aviation, led by Eric Button, has raised $7 million in funding, led by Initialized Capital, joined by investors such as United Airlines, Y Combinator, Decisive Point, and several individual founders and operators with a track record in aviation and elsewhere, including Tyson Weihs, Sky Dayton, Adrian Aoun, James Tamplin, Oliver Cameron, and other operators from top companies such as NVIDIA, OpenAI, and more. Enhanced Radar is building systems th

Fractile, the AI inference hardware company, led by Walter Goodwin and the team, has raised $220M to accelerate the path to getting its first chips and systems into customers’ hands, in a financing round led by Accel, Factorial Funds, and Founders Fund, with participation from Conviction, Gigascale, O1A, Felicis, Buckley Ventures, and 8VC, investing alongside its brilliant existing backers. Fractile, founded in 2022, was built on the belief that frontier AI is ultimately con

Proxima Fusion, building stellarators to power the future, led by Francesco Sciortino, Lucio Milanese, Jorrit Lion, Martin Kubie, and the team, has announced the creation of its Industrial Development Board (IDB), bringing together some of Europe's most experienced industrial and energy leaders to accelerate the shift from fusion science to large-scale industrial deployment. The IDB members include Luc Rémont, former CEO of EDF and Schneider Electric, Dr. Michael Bolle, forme

Isomorphic Labs, reimagining the drug discovery process with AI, led by Demis Hassabis and the team, has raised $2.1 Billion in Series B funding led by Thrive Capital, and includes participation from existing backers Alphabet and GV alongside new investors MGX, Temasek, CapitalG, and the UK Sovereign AI Fund, significantly expanding Isomorphic Labs’ global capital base. The new capital will advance Isomorphic Labs’ AI drug design engine (IsoDDE), accelerating its therapeutic

Star Catcher, powering the next industrial revolution, led by Andrew Rush, Michael Snyder, and Bryan Lyandvert, has raised $65 million in an oversubscribed Series A round. The new investment, led by B Capital and co-led by Shield Capital and Cerberus Ventures, the venture arm of Cerberus Capital Management, brings Star Catcher's total capital raised to $88 million. Cerberus’ General John W. “Jay” Raymond (Ret.), the first Chief of Space Operations of the United States Space F

By Kevin Lausten, CEO, Morpheus Space - A leading innovator and manufacturer of advanced electric propulsion systems for in-space mobility. Electric propulsion is shifting satellites from fixed assets to mobile infrastructure. As orbital congestion rises, maneuverability is becoming a core driver of mission value. Access to Space Is Improving but Orbital Mobility Remains Constrained The “New Space” era has fundamentally changed launch economics. The cost per kilogram to orbit

Algorithmiq, bringing quantum to life, led by Sabrina Maniscalco, Guillermo García-Pérez, Matteo Rossi, and Boris Sokolov, has raised €18 million in funding led by United Ventures and Italian institutional investor Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), with continued participation from Inventure VC. This funding round brings Algorithmiq’s total funding raised to €36m, and represents Italy’s largest-ever venture capital investment in a quantum startup. While the quantum computing

Eyeo, building the future of imaging, led by Jeroen Hoet, Alden Carracillo, Gerd Van den Branden, and Jan Genoe, has raised €40 million in Series A funding, bringing eyeo’s total funding to €55 million. The round is led by Innovation Industries, with participation from existing investors imec.xpand, Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund, QBIC fund, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), and Brabant Development Agency (BOM). eyeo has developed a nanophotonic color-splitting technology that enhance

Graduate Ventures, empowering founders through funding and support, is celebrating its 80th investment. The milestone backing goes to FrostByte, a Delft startup whose technology makes it possible to build quantum computers at a greater scale. The investment is part of a 1.3 million euro funding round, alongside Innovation Quarter, Paeonia Group, UNIIQ, and an angel investor. Since its founding in 2021, Graduate Ventures has invested in 79 startups from the ecosystems of TU De

Sweden Ballistics, securing Europe's explosives supply, led by Joakim Sjöblom, Carl Duforce, Sebastian Reismer, and the team, has raised a €30 million funding round to complete construction of its TNT manufacturing facility in Nora, Sweden. The €30m strategic investment is made up of several investors. Firstly, Sweden’s ex-Chief of Army, Major General (ret) Karl Engelbrektson. In 2023, Karl took on the position of Head of Advisory Board at Finserve Global Security Fund (GSF).

Astranis, building the world's most advanced satellites for high orbits, led by John Gedmark and the team, has raised $450 million in new capital, bringing the company’s total raised to more than $1.2 billion as it scales to meet increased demand for its spacecraft designed for geostationary orbit (GEO) and other high orbits. The funding includes a new $300 million Series E round co-led by Snowpoint Ventures and Franklin Templeton, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz,

Quantum Motion, building a full-stack CMOS quantum computing, led by James Palles-Dimmock, Simon Benjamin, John Morton, and the team, has announced a $160 million Series C round to commercialise its scalable and energy-efficient approach to quantum computing. The round is co-led by DCVC and Kembara, with participation from new investors, the British Business Bank, and Firgun, alongside existing investors Oxford Science Enterprises, Inkef, Bosch Ventures, Porsche Automobil Hol

Lunar Outpost, the industry leader in commercial space robotics, lunar surface mobility, and in-space infrastructure, led by Justin Cyrus, Forrest Meyen, AJ Gemer, Julian Cyrus, and the team, has announced a $30M Series B led by Industrious Ventures, with participation from Type One Ventures, Eniac Ventures, Promus Ventures, Reliable Equity, and others. The funding will accelerate production and deployment of the company’s advanced robotics and mobility platforms as it scales

Moment Energy, building a new standard for commercial-scale energy storage, led by Edward Chiang, Sumreen Rattan, Gabriel Soares, and Gurmesh Sidhu, has raised a $40 million Series B funding round, bringing its total capital raised to over $100 million. The Series B round was led by Evok Innovations, with participation from Liberty Mutual Investments, W23 Global Fund, and Acario (the corporate venture capital arm of Tokyo Gas), joining the company’s major investors, Amazon’s

Pumpkinseed, the biology mining company, led by Dr. Jennifer Dionne, Dr. Jack Hu, and Nhat Vu, has announced a $20 million Series A funding round to scale its protein sequencing platform, mining biological functional data at a resolution and scale that simply hasn't existed before. The Series A round was co-led by NfX and Future Ventures, with participation from Base4 Capital, ADVentures, and Stanford, among others. The funding will accelerate Pumpkinseed’s deSIPHR platform t

QuantWare, hyper-scaling quantum computers with our VIO™ 3D scaling architecture, led by Matthijs Rijlaarsdam, Alessandro Bruno, and the team, has raised a $178 million (€152 million) Series B equity funding following the announcement of VIO-40K™, a quantum processor architecture for 10,000 qubits, 100x larger than the state of the art today. New investors joining the round include Intel Capital, IQT, and ETF Partners, with existing investors participating, including FORWARD.