![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1.-Jamie-France.jpg\")
Outlier Space founder Jamie France. Credit: Outlier France.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPublished on\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJuly 29, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Outlier Space has raised an unusually large $10.5 million pre-seed round to build a satellite designed to help companies manufacture pharmaceuticals, silicon and other advanced materials in microgravity.<\/p>\n
Outlier Space founder Jamie France. Credit: Outlier France.<\/p>\n
Space is becoming a new frontier of advanced manufacturing thanks to the wonders of microgravity. That may sound like sci-fi, but antipodean investors are betting it will soon be reality.<\/p>\n
Outlier Space, which creates satellites that allow drugs, silicon and biotech to be developed in-orbit, has raised $10.5 million in an unusually large pre-seed round led by New Zealand VC GD1 and with participation from Australian VCs Airtree, Side Stage Ventures and Investible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re providing an anti-gravity chamber for customers,\u201d founder Jamie France said to Forbes Australia. \u201cThey are the scientists who have figured out that they would really like to get away from gravity to do a process\u2026 we basically handle all of the space logistics around accessing that environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outlier will use the funding to engineer its first satellite. The idea is that its customers will put materials in that satellite, and it will then be launched into space where it will stay for weeks or months. Outlier also handles the retrieval piece, which essentially means its satellites have to be designed to not burn up on re-entering the atmosphere. <\/p>\n
Microgravity environments are thought to open new possibilities for a variety of advanced manufacturing as materials form in more controlled physical environments. Microgravity can also produce larger, more consistent crystals, which may benefit pharmaceutical development and semiconductor manufacturing. It can also change how materials form by altering the way liquids solidify in space.<\/p>\n
Outlier, which has operated in stealth over the last 18 months, is not the first to this frontier. Californian startup Varda Industries is building satellites for microgravitational pharmaceutical development, and last year raised US$187 million. Meanwhile British startup Space Forge is working to manufacture silicon in orbit, and has backing from NATO Innovation Fund to do it.<\/p>\n
The difference is that these companies are specialising in the particular industries of pharmaceuticals and semiconductor materials. By contrast, Outlier develops the \u201canti-gravity chambers\u201d for use by a range of customers.<\/p>\n
France spent nearly 10 years at New Zealand-founded Rocket Lab, finishing up there as a global director, before a stint as head of manufacturing at Fleet Space Technologies. Other investors in the round include Nova Threshold and Icehouse Ventures. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor most of history, everything humanity has ever built has been made under one gravity. In-space manufacturing quietly upends that \u2013 in microgravity you can grow crystals, fibres and compounds with properties that are simply impossible to replicate on Earth,\u201d said Airtree principal investor Raaj Rayat. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing holding it back as a category has never been demand; it\u2019s been cheap, repeatable access to space.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outlier\u2019s raise is notable not just because of how futuristic it sounds. It is the latest example of investors favouring hardware companies with defensible competitive advantages over software businesses, amid growing concern that AI could erode many traditional SaaS moats. Airtree\u2019s presence on the cap table is itself significant: the VC has historically focused on fast-growing software companies.<\/p>\n
The raise also underlines the findings of Cut Through Venture\u2019s Australian Startup Funding Report for Q2<\/a>, released last week, that found capital raises are getting larger but dealflow is getting smaller. The three months to June 30 saw the fewest early-stage bets made since the VC started keeping track in 2020, but the mean pre-seed round size of $1.3 million was at its highest ever.<\/p>\n That stat also highlights how large Outlier\u2019s $10.5 million pre-seed raise is.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re aiming to be in space in mid-2028,\u201d France said. \u201cI\u2019m expecting that we will raise again before then.\u201d<\/p>\n Want to see more Forbes articles on your feed?\u00a0Tap here to make Forbes Australia a preferred source on Google.<\/a><\/p>\n Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world.\u00a0Sign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0become a member here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on July 29, 2026 Outlier Space has raised an unusually large $10.5 million pre-seed round to build…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,93746,82,247,81696,68236,2150],"class_list":["post-581170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-outlier","tag-science","tag-space","tag-space-tech","tag-start-up-funding","tag-vc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}