$1B+ Capital Raised in the ISS National Lab Ecosystem
FY2021 was a record year of capital raising by startups in the ISS National Lab ecosystem, benefiting from growing public market appetite, expanding private capital inflows, as well as maturation of technologies and business models in our startup user base.
Based on publicly available data, more than $500 million of private and public capital, as well as grant funding, was raised during FY21 by startups that have completed one or more flight projects through the ISS National Lab. To date, more than $1.1 billion of such startup funding has been raised post-ISS National Lab flight projects.
FY21 capital raising successes included Angiex, Emulate, Lynk, Kernal Biologics, Orbital Sidekick, Orbit Fab, Redwire Space, RevBio, and Spire Global, among others. We are excited to see such progress and to have had the opportunity to contribute to these companies’ R&D efforts in the past. Reach out to us with your business ideas—we are very interested in supporting entrepreneurs that look to leverage low Earth orbit to create value in the terrestrial markets!
Announcing Technology in Space Winners 2021
In partnership with Boeing, we are very excited to announce the 2021 winners of the annual Technology in Space Prize through MassChallenge:
krtkl inc provides high-reliability edge-computing and artificial-intelligence solutions for robotics, sensing, and communications applications. Leveraging the ISS National Lab, the company is planning to develop and mature a novel intersatellite communications platform.
Oculogenex is developing a novel gene therapy to stop the degeneration of central vision in patients with macular degeneration. Research onboard the ISS will provide the startup with unique opportunities in therapeutic target evaluation and disease model generation.
The ISS National Lab and Boeing have a long history of partnering on the Technology in Space Prize to grant up to $500,000 collectively toward innovative startups to accelerate product and technology R&D via the use of the unique space-based environment of the ISS. We have seen prior years’ winners raise combined follow-up funding of more than 20 times the initial awarded amount!
A full announcement can be found here. If you would like to connect with this year’s winners, please reach out to us at [email protected].
Take a Look at to Our Recent Investor Event
In late September, the ISS National Lab hosted its sixth annual investor event to connect accredited investors with startups using the ISS National Lab. We were excited to see a range of innovative ideas addressing real market needs.
The rich detail of the presentations can be found here. We recommend you take another look! To schedule a follow-up conversation, please find the contact information for all the presenters here.
During the event Lynk discussed the success the company has seen in its technology path to the now achieved connectivity between standard cellular devices and satellites. Lynk also highlighted its first two mobile network operator (MNO) customer wins and the path toward delivering global communications services. On November 3, the company announced its third MNO agreement, adding Unitel to its carrier partnership program.
Space Tango, which recently announced a partnership with Sierra Space, discussed its well-established capabilities onboard the ISS as well as the company’s growth plans. Over the last 12 months, we have seen a significant uptick in the strategic and funding activity in this strata of the space economy. SpaceLink provided insights on its technology and constellation plans to meet growing data transport needs for the expanding range of LEO constellations. Subsequent to the investor event, the company announced a manufacturing and investment agreement with a leading European space systems provider, OHB Systems AG.
ConstellR discussed its plans to target global temperature monitoring and analytics markets with a cost-effective solution. Allvar provided insights on its unique alloys that are gaining traction with defense customers and primes, and Apsidal addressed its model for space-based photonics manufacturing.
The life sciences presenters at the investor event included two past Technology in Space Prize winners. Kernal Biologics discussed its focus on mRNA 2.0 and lead targets in oncology as well as industry engagement with its broader platform strategy. Axonis Therapeutics provided an overview of its pipeline of novel neuron-reviving therapeutics and its lead candidate heading to pre-IND in Q1FY22.
