SpaceWatch.Global has one mission: to share with you all the space technology deals worldwide, every month. We show in a transparent way who is included and who is not on our list and explain why.
Ask a venture capitalist what the best month is to take a break from fundraising and they’ll tell you: August. The summer funding lull took a toll on the space industry last month, with just 19 companies raising $170 million — one of the slowest months of 2024 so far.
The largest rounds from US-based Muon Space ($56 million), Astroforge ($40 million) and Japan's Interstellar ($3.1 billion yen or $21.2 billion) together secured more than half of all space technology investment this month.
Offer of the month
Space mining is coming into the spotlight this month. While the concept of mining a mineral-rich asteroid or setting up production factories on the Moon certainly captures the public’s imagination, venture capitalists seem to have remained skeptical so far in 2024. Until August, when two companies raised big rounds with big ambitions.
Our offer of the month this month is one of these companies, Astroforge (US), with a $40 million Series A led by Nova Threshold, with participation from 776, Initialized, Caladan, YC and Uncorrelated Ventures and individual investor Jed McCaleb.
Its mission: to launch and land a satellite on a platinum-heavy asteroid, extract approximately 1,000 kg of platinum and return it to Earth.
“There’s no physics question about it,” says AstroForge CEO Matthew Gialich. “A lot of others have landed on bodies in space. So, as far as orbital dynamics and landing operations go, we know it’s possible. The question is, can we operate at the price point we want?”
Ben Baseley-Walker, a partner at Andart Global, which provides consulting on space and emerging technologies to governments, industries and investors, agrees: it is very much a financial bet.
“There are two key questions: first, can the launch price support ideas like this?” Baseley-Walker says. “Second, if you keep the resources in orbit, the added value is simple: you save on launch costs compared to bringing the resources from the surface. When you bring them to Earth, you are raising a lot of legal, political, fiscal and market complexities, so the key information to understand is about the platinum market on Earth.”
South Africa, which produces about 88% of the world's platinum, probably won't be too happy, Baseley-Walker says.
Gialich doesn't seem too worried: “Compared to the total platinum production on Earth, this is a drop in the ocean: we would need to bring back 100 missions before we start to spoil the markets.”
AstroForge plans to use the $40 million to fund its Mission 3scheduled for launch in 2025.
Another company, focused on on-premise resources, raised $12 million: Starpath Robotics (USA) Their plan: to collect raw materials on the Moon and produce rocket fuel to enable refueling on the Moon.
All offers in July 2024, for $ (descending)
- Muon space (USA) – LEO satellite constellations: $56.7 million raised
- Astroforge (USA) – Space mining – Raised $40 million
- Interstellar technologies (Japan) – rocket and satellite production – raised JPY 3.1 billion.
- Steel head compounds (USA) – Hydrogen storage: $15 million raised.
- Starpath Robotics (USA) – on-site propulsion production – raised $12 million.
- SAgri (Japan) – agricultural images – raised JPY1b.
- GalaxEye Space (India) – Multi-sensor Earth Observation – raised INR 8.28 crore.
- Ethereal X (India) – Reusable launch vehicles – raised $5 million.
- Perceptual space (Canada) – space-based weather prediction – raised $2.8 million.
- Deep matrix (India) – Geospatial Data Management: Raised $1.6 million.
- Metacosmos (Australia) – Modular Spacesuit Systems – raised A$2 million.
- Rotonio (Italy) – quantum processing (including in orbit) – raised 1 million euros.
- Equatorial space systems (Singapore) – Rocket Systems – raised S$25,000.
Raised an undisclosed amount:
Estimating the size of the space technology industry
SpaceWatch.Global estimates that so far in 2024, 197 companies have raised $4.61 billion venture capital financing.
- January:27 deals, $533 million
- February:35 transactions for 1.793 billion dollars
- March:12 deals, $93.96 million
- April:26 deals, $472 million
- Can:22 deals, $270 million
- June:25 deals, $738 million
- July:31 transactions for $535 million.
- August: 19 deals, $170 million.
Benchmarking our estimate
The Negotiating Room/ESA Space technology control panel It's a great way to compare our estimate. Overall, the panel has a broader definition of space technology (including, for example, ground-based drones, ground-based sensors, or startups using GPS to measure golf performance).
Dealroom estimates that, as of August 2024, 14 space tech companies have raised a total of approximately $148 million. At the time of publication, the panel also includes 5 additional deals, worth $14 million, that we classify as non-space tech or non-VC related (e.g. grants and awards).
Contact us at (email protected) and we'd be happy to share more about our methodology, who's included, who's not, and more information about each investment.
Leave feedback about this