Fundraising of 150 million euros to build a European space cargo ship

The young Franco-German aerospace company The Exploration Company (TEC) announced this Monday that it had raised 150 million euros to develop and build its reusable cargo ship, Nyx, supported by the European Space Agency.

“This financing brings the total funds raised by TEC to more than 216 million euros,” she emphasized in a press release: “They will be used to develop and test the Nyx ship, to strengthen the team which already numbers 200 people and to increase the company’s production capacity.”

This new funding round includes the French public funds French Tech Souveraineté, managed by the public investment bank Bpifrance, and the German DeepTech & Climate Fonds (DTCF), as well as “ihistorical investors, including EQT Ventures, Red River West, Cherry Ventures, Promus Ventures and Omnes Real Tech Fund”according to the same source.

The Exploration Company, alongside the Franco-Italian industrialist Thales Alenia Space, was selected in May by the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop a cargo transport service to the International Space Station by 2028, first step towards Europe being one day capable of sending humans into space itself. The two companies were thus granted 25 million euros.