Space start-up Isar Aerospace raises 155 million euros in Series C

Landshut/Ottobrunn — Isar Aero­space, deve­lo­per and manu­fac­tu­rer of launch vehic­les for the trans­port of small and medium-sized satel­li­tes, has secu­red addi­tio­nal capi­tal of 155 million euros in a Series C finan­cing round. The inter­na­tio­nal inves­tor base of this largest Space­Tech finan­cing round world­wide in 2023 includes Bayern Kapi­tal with ScaleUp Fonds Bayern as well as 7‑Industries Holding, Porsche SE, Early­bird Venture Capi­tal, HV Capi­tal, Lake­star, Lombard Odier, UVC and Vsquared Ventures. With total funding now in excess of €310 million, Isar Aero­space is the most stron­gly capi­ta­li­zed inde­pen­dent new-space company in Europe and a key player in streng­thening Euro­pean capa­bi­li­ties for consis­tent, flexi­ble and cost-effec­­tive access to space for global commer­cial and insti­tu­tio­nal customers.

Isar Aero­space, based in Otto­brunn near Munich, deve­lops and builds launch vehic­les for trans­port­ing small and medium-sized satel­li­tes and satel­lite constel­la­ti­ons into Earth orbit. The company was foun­ded in 2018 as a spin-off from the Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Munich and has since estab­lished itself as a fully verti­cally inte­gra­ted tech­no­logy leader. Curr­ently, the more than 300 employees are working towards the first flight of the “Spec­trum” launch vehicle, which is plan­ned for the second half of 2023 from Andøya in Norway. In addi­tion, the “Aquila” engine, which was deve­lo­ped and manu­fac­tu­red enti­rely within the company, is curr­ently under­go­ing engine tests. In addi­tion to these projects, the addi­tio­nal funds from the finan­cing round will be used to inten­sify deve­lo­p­ment and to expand auto­ma­ted and thus cost-effi­ci­ent produc­tion capacities.

Isar Aero­space alre­ady has a strong custo­mer base and has signed firm contracts with custo­mers around the world, inclu­ding large commer­cial compa­nies, new-space firms and govern­ment insti­tu­ti­ons. Appli­ca­ti­ons for the satel­li­tes the company trans­ports into Earth orbit include envi­ron­men­tal moni­to­ring and protec­tion, Earth obser­va­tion, tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons, agri­cul­ture, disas­ter manage­ment, trans­por­ta­tion, scien­ti­fic rese­arch and security.

Daniel Metz­ler, co-foun­­der and CEO of Isar Aero­space, explains: “The strong inte­rest of our inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors under­lines their confi­dence in our vision and tech­no­lo­gi­cal capa­bi­li­ties. Access to space is the key to inno­va­tion, tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ment and secu­rity — alre­ady today and even more so in the future. Isar Aero­space opens up access to space, which is urgen­tly needed by commer­cial, insti­tu­tio­nal and govern­ment custo­mers. This funding round is an important mile­stone on our path to orbit.”

Bavaria’s Minis­ter of Econo­mic Affairs Hubert Aiwan­ger: “Start-ups like Isar Aero­space are taking Bavaria’s space tech­no­logy loca­tion to a new level. The company is an outstan­ding exam­ple: it offers important appli­ca­ti­ons such as climate obser­va­tion relia­ble and afforda­ble access to space. With our ScaleUp Fonds Bayern, we support such tech­no­logy leaders on their way to beco­ming inter­na­tio­nally active companies.”

Bayern Kapi­tal is one of the first venture capi­tal compa­nies to invest in the aero­space sector and is curr­ently invol­ved in Isar Aero­space custo­mer and vege­ta­tion obser­va­tion satel­lite deve­lo­per Orora­Tech, and drone start-up Quan­tum Systems, among others. Bayern Kapi­tal supports the various deve­lo­p­ment stages of young tech­no­logy compa­nies with seve­ral funds — the ScaleUp Fonds Bayern, laun­ched in 2021 with a total volume of 200 million euros, is a powerful finan­cing offer for parti­cu­larly rapidly expan­ding tech companies.

About Bayern Kapital
Bayern Kapi­tal GmbH, based in Lands­hut, is the venture/growth capi­tal company of the Free State of Bava­ria. It accom­pa­nies inno­va­tive high-tech compa­nies in the Free State through various growth phases, from seed to later stage, with equity capi­tal in the amount of 0.25 to 25 million euros. Bayern Kapi­tal often fills gaps in the VC sector in proven consor­tium constel­la­ti­ons with private inves­tors (busi­ness angels, family offices and corpo­rate ventures).

Bayern Kapi­tal mana­ges specia­li­zed invest­ment funds with a volume of around 700 million euros. Since its foun­da­tion in 1995 on the initia­tive of the state govern­ment, the wholly owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern has so far inves­ted around 400 million euros of its own equity capi­tal in around 300 start-ups and scale-ups in sectors such as life scien­ces, soft­ware & IT, mate­ri­als & new mate­ri­als, nano­tech­no­logy and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. As a result, more than 8,000 jobs have been perma­nently crea­ted in Bava­ria in sustainable compa­nies. The active port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 80 companies.

Examp­les of nume­rous ground­brea­king success stories that Bayern Kapi­tal has been invol­ved in at an early stage include EOS (today the world’s leading tech­no­logy provi­der in indus­trial 3D prin­ting of metals and plas­tics), Proglove, Fazua, SimS­cale, Scom­pler, egym, Parcel­lab, Cobrai­ner, Quan­tum Systems, Casavi, Riskme­thods, Tubu­lis, Cata­lym, Immu­nic, Sirion, tado and many more.
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