Germany-based satellite technology launch startup Isar Aerospace has raised €75m ($90.8m) of series B funding from investors including Airbus Ventures, a corporate venturing subsidiary of aerospace manufacturer Airbus, TechCrunch reported on Tuesday.
The round was co-led by Lakestar, Earlybird and Vsquared Ventures and also featured Unternehmertum Venture Capital (UVC) Partners, HV Capital, Apeiron Investment Group and private investors Bulent Altan, Paul Achleitner and Ann-Kristin Achleitner.
Isar is working on a two-stage launch vehicle designed to deploy satellites into low-earth orbit. Its rockets use light hydrocarbon and liquid oxygen-based fuel that has a lower environmental impact than common propellants.
The company was founded as a spinout of the Technical University of Munich in 2018 by engineering students Daniel Metzler, Josef Fleischmann and Markus Brandl.
Metzler, Isar’s co-founder and CEO, told TechCrunch the company aims to launch payloads of more than 1,000kg at a price of around $10,000 per kilogram, and said it has already received $500m of customer inquiries for its services.
The company will use the funding for research, development and production activities ahead of its first commercial launches, which are planned for early 2022.
Airbus Ventures and Earlybird co-led a $16.5m series A round for Isar in December 2019 that included Apeiron, UVC Partners, Vito Ventures and Bulent Altan. The last three had joined David Giger in a multi-million-dollar seed round the year before, following $57,000 from the European Space Agency.
Image courtesy of Isar Aerospace.