Deep Tech: Airbus Ventures raises USD 155 million fund

Munich — Airbus Ventures, one of the most proli­fic inves­tors in space start­ups, has laun­ched a USD 155 million fund to be deployed in the emer­ging space sector as well as the broa­der “deep tech” ecosystem.
Airbus Ventures curr­ently has USD 465 million under manage­ment, with Fund‑Y being the fourth fund laun­ched to date.
“This fund is to explore new oppor­tu­ni­ties, and space is one of them,” Thomas d’Hal­luin, Mana­ging Part­ner of Airbus Ventures, told CNBC.
— The move comes at a time when invest­ment in the space indus­try, parti­cu­larly from venture capi­ta­lists, is reco­ve­ring after two lean years.
Airbus Ventures’ new “Fund‑Y” targets long-term oppor­tu­ni­ties in early-stage deep tech start­ups, which d’Hal­luin defi­nes as “going back to the laws of physics and not being afraid of what’s hard.”
Histo­ri­cally, “deep tech” is a clas­si­fi­ca­tion for compa­nies working on tech­no­lo­gies that face major scien­ti­fic or tech­ni­cal obstacles.
— While Airbus Ventures has tradi­tio­nally deployed the majo­rity of its funding in the U.S., d’Hal­luin explai­ned that Fund‑Y is inten­ded to be global in scope.
In parti­cu­lar, he sees “very strong momen­tum” for space start­ups in Europe and Japan.
Foun­ded in 2016, Airbus Ventures takes a diffe­rent approach to tradi­tio­nal venture capi­tal firms.
The company keeps its distance from its name­sake company, the Euro­pean aero­space company, and more than half of its Fund‑Y comes from exter­nal capi­tal such as insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors, private equity and family offices.
About a third of the capi­tal provi­ded by Airbus Ventures so far has gone to the space sector, it said, back­ing 14 pure-play compa­nies in the space, inclu­ding startup Impulse, lunar cargo company ispace and track­ing service LeoLabs.
“This is about pati­ence. Often, and too often, people want instant wins. Space is not a place of instant grati­fi­ca­tion,” said d’Halluin.
He empha­si­zed the importance of funding foun­ders with the “extre­mely rare” trait of great execu­tion and high­ligh­ted Airbus Ventures’ support for Impulse.
The startup was foun­ded by Tom Muel­ler, who is known for deve­lo­ping SpaceX’s rocket engines.
“Impulse was successful in its first mission thanks to Tom’s 17 years of expe­ri­ence at SpaceX,” said d’Halluin.
“This element of human capi­tal that is often negle­c­ted in deep tech dili­gence — this notion of who captures the execu­tion, know­ledge and skills in a parti­cu­lar company — is what we focus on,” he added.