Varda Space Industries, the pharmaceutical company using antigravity in space, announced Sept. 30 that it raised $251 million in series D funding, bringing total funding for the company to $598 million.
The round was led by Lux Capital and Natural Capital, with additional participation from investors such as Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Founders Fund and Caffeinated Capital. Reuters reported that Varda is now valued at $1.6 billion.
The fresh infusion of funding will be used to accelerate operations of its W-Series spacecraft, which is what the company uses to launch payloads into space and return them to Earth. Varda has completed six launch and re-entry missions. The company has already scheduled more than a dozen launches through the end
of 2028.
“This round gives us the resources to increase our cadence, deepen our pharmaceutical partnerships, (and) get closer to delivering the first medicine made in space,” said Varda co-founder and President Delian Asparouhov said in a statement.
‘Building what space needs’
The orbital pharmaceutical company was co-founded in 2021 by Asparouhov and former Space Exploration Technologies Corp. engineer Will Bruey, Varda’s chief executive. The company builds small laboratories that launch into space with a pharmaceutical component as their payload and allow microgravity to crystallize the ingredient in space. It’s a process long studied aboard the International Space Station, but commercial use is only now becoming possible.
“In-space manufacturing means building what space needs, in space, and making what Earth can’t,” Lux Capital partner Shanin Farshchi said in a statement.
