Spacetech has been a hot topic for investors of late, and one of the buzziest such companies in Europe, Munich and Bordeaux-based The Exploration Company (TEC), is nearing a deal to raise €150m in fresh funding, according to a source with direct knowledge of the fundraise. The new raise would put the company’s post-money valuation at around €450m, they said. Sifted understands the final details of the raise are being ironed out and the amounts could change; London-based Balderton Capital is one of the new investors involved in the round, Sifted understands.
The company, which is building what it says is the first privately-funded reusable space capsule that can fly to space stations and the moon, is expected to close the round imminently, according to two sources. TEC did not return Sifted’s request for comment. Balderton Capital also did not return Sifted’s request for comment.
The company last raised €40m in February last year, in a Series A round co-led by EQT Ventures.
Earlier in the summer, TEC’s first capsule made it to space along with French rocket Ariane 6. TEC was also recently one of two companies to win a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to provide cargo return services to the International Space Station. TEC was awarded an initial €25m to build a commercial cargo service to low-Earth orbit by 2028. It’s a similar contract to the much larger one Elon Musk’s SpaceX won from NASA over a decade ago that helped boost the company.
TEC was founded in 2021 by Airbus alumna Hélène Huby. The company says its mission is to democratise access to space. TEC is backed by investors including Cherry Ventures, Partech and Vsquared Ventures.
Taking off
Despite TEC’s big new fundraising plans and a hefty €65m for fellow Munich spacetech Isar Aerospace earlier this year, funding for spacetech broadly still hasn’t taken off. As Sifted reported in May, funding for the sector was sub-$1bn in 2023, down more than 60% from its peak in 2021 (but a bit higher than 2022’s figures).
VCs are increasingly looking into the sector, however: spacetech is “evolving very dynamically,” Berlin VC Point Nine’s Pawel Chudzinski told Sifted in an interview earlier this year. “With increased scale, the costs are going down,” he said, making it “viable for startups to play a significant role”. And VCs are raising funds specifically for the sector: Alpine Space Ventures, a Munich-based VC, raised a €170m fund this summer.
Meanwhile, politicians like French president Emmanuel Macron have been pushing for the European Union to spend more on things like home-grown spacetech. The country has also committed €1.5bn to its space agency CNES in recent years from the France 2030 programme.
