\n One public investor in the company told this column that it \u201cbelieved in its technology\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, it is unclear at this stage whether anything will be clawed back for the Scottish and UK governments which both invested heavily in the Forres space launch firm.\n<\/p>\n
\n Some of the UK funds are known to have been used as wages and will not be recouped.\n<\/p>\n
\n Most of the company’s staff were based in Forres. (Image: Orbex)\n<\/p>\n
\n Orbex was founded in 2015 and was developing a low-carbon micro-launch rocket designed to place small satellites into low Earth orbit called Prime.\n<\/p>\n
\n Public investment in Orbex totalled \u00a376.7m, with \u00a329m from the Scottish Government<\/a>\u2019s Scottish National Investment Bank, and \u00a326m from the UK Government<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \n The huge potential loss will bring more scrutiny to SNIB, but perhaps looming more significantly is the impact on the UK rocket space launch sector, and the Sutherland spaceport over which Orbex had stewardship.\n<\/p>\n \n The site is seen as the sector launchpad.\n<\/p>\n \n The company was unable to reach its latest fundraising targets, administrators said.\n<\/p>\n \n Read More:\n<\/p>\n \n It had already secured \u00a3138.5m, made up of \u00a333.3m in grants and \u00a3105m in equity.\n<\/p>\n \n A bank spokesperson said: \u201cWe invested in Orbex because we believed in its technology and the key role it could play in realising the potential of the space sector in the UK and Scotland.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cHowever, in common with other companies in this\u00a0industry, Orbex\u00a0is a capital intense business and ultimately could not secure the additional investment it needed\u00a0to progress with developing its plans.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n The spokesperson also said: \u201cAs Scotland\u2019s development bank, we were established to fill an identified gap in the Scottish funding landscape by supporting scale-up companies with high-growth potential.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cWe enter into all investments with confidence, but risk is inherent in all investment and we are mandated to take on higher risk than other commercial investors to drive growth in the economy.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cWe have always said that regrettably, some company failures will be inevitable, and our strategy is based on the entire portfolio, over the long term.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n Read More:\n<\/p>\n