Orbex, a Forres, Scotland, UK-based spaceflight company, raised £40.4M in Series C funding.
Backers included Scottish National Investment Bank, Jacobs, The Danish Green Future Fund, Verve Ventures, Phillip and James Chambers, BGF, Heartcore Capital, High-Tech Gründerfonds and Octopus Ventures.
The company intends to use the funds to scale up its resources as it counts down to the first vertical launch from UK soil, as well as to attract additional funding to support future projects.
Led by CEO Chris Larmour, Orbex is an UK-based spaceflight company with headquarters, production and testing facilities in Scotland, and design and testing facilities in Denmark. Orbex recently revealed its “Prime” rocket in its final form. Prime is a 19-metre long, two-stage rocket designed to transport small satellites weighing up to 180kg into low Earth orbit. The rocket will launch from the Space Hub Sutherland spaceport near Tongue on the North coast of mainland Scotland.
The company is currently performing a wide variety of integration tests, including the testing of the main propellant tanks and engines, as well as testing launch procedures including rollout, strongback erection and fuelling procedures in advance of the first launch, which will carry a payload developed by one of the world´s largest small satellite developers, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited.
Orbex has won more than a dozen R&D contracts from a wide variety of bodies, including the UK Space Agency (UKSA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission Horizon 2020 programme.
FinSMEs
18/10/2022