An Auckland-based startup has raised US$7.35 million (A$10.5m) in pre-seed funding to build commercial payload capsules for space.<\/p>\n
The round for Outlier Space was led by by New Zealand VC GD1, supported by Nova Threshold, Brian Cartmell, Airtree, Icehouse Ventures, Investible and Side Stage Ventures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The capital is to develop an autonomous, reusable satellite capsule to carry research and manufacturing payloads to microgravity on any type of rocket, then return them to Earth, with hopes to hold a first test flight in 2028,<\/p>\n
Target customers include US and European pharmaceutical, biotechnology and advanced materials companies needing microgravity conditions to produce things difficult to develop on Earth.<\/p>\n
Founder and CEO Jamie France, said his engingeering team previously designed and launched orbital rockets, built satellite buses, and delivered payloads to orbit the Moon and explore its surface.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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By continuing, you agree to our\u00a0Terms & Conditions<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOur people have been at the forefront of numerous globally significant advances in space. It shows that we have the talent to deliver a world-first commercial offering from New Zealand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cost to orbit is at an all-time low. The International Space Station, which has proved the science over the last three decades, is being decommissioned soon. We\u2019re already seeing strong demand for a commercially viable, uncrewed commercial platform, which is what we are building.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Rocket Lab veteran<\/p>\n France, who spent 16 years working on New Zealand America\u2019s Cup sailing campaigns and then nearly a decade at Rocket Lab, said the possibilities include cancer treatments, improved drug discovery, next-generation semiconductors and human tissue models.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMicrogravity is an environment where gravity no longer dominates, allowing molecular and surface forces to shape behaviour that is normally hidden on Earth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cOutlier is like the landlord for a very special factory. Our customers supply the manufacturing equipment, and we enable that equipment to bypass gravity so they can produce their materials. To do that, we need to take them to space and bring them all home again safely.\u201d<\/p>\n GD1\u2019s Vignesh Kumar said they\u2019d followed France\u2019s career for several years.<\/p>\n \u201cHe proved at Rocket Lab that he can build the production engine behind a world-leading launch program, and he\u2019s now assembling a team of aerospace veterans to do it again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cGD1 has built deep conviction in New Zealand\u2019s space hardware ecosystem through our portfolio over the past few years, and we\u2019re proud to continue here by leading Outlier\u2019s first round.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Auckland-based startup has raised US$7.35 million (A$10.5m) in pre-seed funding to build commercial payload capsules for space.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[213157,620,50,237117,90,416,109579,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-716355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-capital-raising","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-outlier-space","tag-science","tag-space","tag-space-tech","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}