The Exploration Company (TEC) has announced the completion of a $450 million Series C financing round.
The funding is the largest-ever Series C secured by a European space company and brings TEC's total funding to approximately $680 million.
The round is co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners, Atomico, and the Scaleup Europe Fund, managed by EQT, with participation from TEC’s existing European backers including Balderton, Plural, Cherry and Red River West. Bessemer’s Alex Ferrara will join the TEC board of directors.
“Everyone on Earth depends on infrastructure in space, yet the ability to reach, supply and return from orbit remains rare,” said Hélène Huby, Founder and CEO of The Exploration Company. “This financing will allow us to execute with urgency: to bring Nyx to the International Space Station and safely back to Earth, while accelerating Storm, the high-thrust propulsion capability Europe needs for its future reusable heavy launcher. We are scaling from Europe with talent, customers and partners from around the world because the next generation of space transportation must be built to serve more nations, industries and people – and because our mission is to contribute to build a more collaborative and peaceful future in space.”
TEC is developing a portfolio of spacecraft and propulsion systems, including the Nyx reusable orbital resupply capsule, which is designed to carry cargo to and from current and future space stations. The financing will be used for hiring and scale-up across engineering, manufacturing, mission operations, propulsion and program delivery. It will also be deployed to ramp up development and testing of TEC's next platform Storm, Europe’s first reusable high-thrust rocket engine using a full-flow staged combustion cycle with oxygen and methane as propellants.
Sam Davies
“Space sovereignty is increasingly critical for Europe’s national security, particularly as space becomes the infrastructure layer that the modern economy runs on. Europe cannot rent its way to owning that access”, said Alex Ferrara, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “Hélène and the team at The Exploration Company have shown they can execute against the hardest problems in the industry with Nyx while they continue to drive new innovation with Storm. We believe they have the potential to become one of the most important companies in Europe and globally, and we’re proud to continue to back the team.”
Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, commented: “TEC’s transformational ambitions and excellence in execution, driven by the French German engine, are an inspiration for the space companies we build together in Europe.”
