Taliesin Space Monthly Funding Recap — July 2019
With just under $233M invested in 12 startups with 4 undisclosed rounds that were likely quite large, this month continued a great year for space investment, bringing the YTD total to more than $3.1B (disclosed rounds).
For the full list of this month’s space investments — and some background on them, scroll down!
To find more information on the companies below, and keep up with announcements, milestones, and product releases in space startup land, and join in the conversation, sign up for the Taliesin beta! 🚀
Highlights
Funding Trends
Funding this month totaled $233M, which for the most part went into the two trending company segments that investors have been focusing on recently.
What We’re Thinking About — Markets vs. Races
This month we’ve been reflecting on how far spaceflight has come since its origins post WWII, how much activity has shifted from state-driven to commerce-driven, and the impact of that change on how we think about efforts in space.
A main theme of debate has been the difference between a “New Space Race” and a developing market, and the utility of each of those lenses.
A New Space Race
- Pros: Characterizing efforts in space this way implies a clear, fixed goal, with one winner. Narratives are easily woven, and usually involve competition between the figureheads of major organizations, and harken back to the glory days of the first space race. Measures of success involve progress of a program against a clear, common goal, as well as technical feasibility.
- Cons: This implies a limited set of possibilities and a fairly deterministic growth path where all players are measured against the same goals/criteria. These narratives are overly simplistic and not very helpful to understanding the fundamental factors driving the industry.
Space as a developing market
- Pros: Results in a more open, growth-oriented discussion around the breakdown of customer segments according to their needs, and their relative size/growth rates. It allows for multiple ‘winners’, and pits programs primarily against themselves rather than directly against each other (e.g., you can be the 4th largest small-sat launcher and still be a wildly successful business).
- Cons: It creates an unclear, moving target that is hard to put in a headline that will be consumable by a non-technical audience. It also makes it harder to compare today to the glory days of the Apollo program, which people love to relive.
This Month’s Funding Rounds
SpaceX
SpaceX is an aviation and aerospace company that designs, manufactures, and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.
ConsenSys
ConsenSys builds, consults, and launches decentralized applications using Ethereum.
iSpace China
iSpace designs and develops commercial space shuttle.
Cesium
Cesium is an end-to-end platform for tiling, visualizing, and analyzing 3D geospatial data
Akash Systems
Akash Systems is focused on developing and supplying the next generation of communications gear for space satellites.
Pixxel
Pixxel is making satellite imagery useful by building a constellation of nanosatellites to provide global, real-time and affordable satellite imagery and the tools to analyse that data.
Space in Africa
The Authority on News, Data and Market Analysis for the African Space Industry
Ubiquitilink
Ubiquitilink is focused on providing connectivity to all 7.7 billion people. everywhere on earth.
MOMENTUS Space
MOMENTUS provides in-space flights for satellites between orbits.
FluroSat
FluroSat offers crop health monitoring and analytics services.
ABL Space Systems
ABL builds rockets to launch small satellites.
Synspective
The world’s first “High Frequency, Resolution, and Responsiveness” SAR Data Providing System.
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