Redondo Beach-based Impulse Space Inc. catapulted past $1 billion in total capital raised Tuesday with a new $500 million series D funding round, led by San Francisco-based 137 Ventures and Austin, Texas-based Banner VC.
The deal represented the largest funding round yet for the space mobility startup – placing the company’s value at $4.26 billion, according to a Reuters report citing a person familiar with the matter. Founded in 2021 by Tom Mueller, Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s first employee and one of the propulsion engineers behind its signature rocket engines, the startup provides space mobility infrastructure to move payloads once they are in orbit.
Eric Romo, president and chief operating officer of Impulse Space, said the round represents an “enablement of continuing our growth.” Impulse Space’s spacecraft have been deployed in three major prongs of the space economy, which are commercial use, civil use and defense.
“Our mission is to usher in this new space age, and the way that we get there is we have to build important, challenging technologies. Mobility is a big part of that,” Romo said. “We’ve been really focused on diversifying our business across those three sectors.”
Going forward, Romo shared that the company is looking to fill about 200 roles and work through the “tremendous demand” from various contractors across the aerospace industry. Its current backlogs include orders from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, other commercial space companies like Luxembourg-based satellite giant SES and the U.S. Department of Defense, primarily of its orbital transfer vehicles Mira and Helios.
Impulse Space also had partnerships with other regional aerospace companies like Vast Inc. and Relativity Space Inc. It was awarded a $34.5 million contract by the U.S. Space Force in 2024 and is working with Anduril Industries Inc. to make space-based interceptors for the missile defense project, “Golden Dome.” It operates multiple facilities across the country beyond its Redondo Beach headquarters, including in Colorado, Washington and Mojave.
Cash flow boom
The new funding came at a time when increased attention and massive cash flows are coming into the aerospace scene. Upcoming mega-initial public offerings, such as SpaceX’s $75 billion IPO, are set to shake up the market on multiple fronts, according to a Barron’s report. BNP Paribas analyst Matt Akers and colleagues, for one, wrote in a research note last month that The Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. would face a great competitive risk through the United Launch Alliance joint venture that competes for U.S. national security launches against the rocket giant.
On the startup front, Romo said that the IPOs will bring more understanding to the space economy and sharpen investor interest.
“It’s really good that there’s more attention being paid to the space industry,” Romo said. “That’s nothing but helpful for us from a talent perspective, from a fundraising perspective.”
