Alpine Space Ventures closes €170 million startup fund to support European space-focused portfolio – SatNews

Alpine Space Ventures, an industry insider-led venture capital firm specializing in early-stage investments in the emerging European space sector, today announced the final close of its first fund, totaling €170 million.

The fund is primarily focused on Series A rounds to build an initial position by investing in startups that serve or leverage the global space industry, with a focus on space industrialization and hardware and software solutions around connectivity and data. Alpine Space Ventures is primarily focused on investing in the European ecosystem, but has some geographic flexibility to invest in the United States and beyond, leveraging the team’s industry relationships, especially with the early SpaceX management team. A focused portfolio of no more than 10-15 selected investment targets will receive up to five million euros initially, with a significant reserve for subsequent rounds.

A fund created by industry insiders

Alpine Space Ventures’ investment team has over 50 years of experience building products, teams and companies, while shaping the NewSpace industry. Founding Partner Bulent Altan was an early leader at SpaceX, joining Elon Musk’s team initially in 2004 and overseeing avionics development for Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and the Dragon capsule, and later the development of the first Starlink satellites, before finally leaving the company in 2017. Founding Partner Joram Voelklein has been a successful technology investor since 2015, with a significant angel investment in launch company Isar Aerospace, alongside Bulent, making him one of the first backers of the European space technology ecosystem.

This expertise is complemented by Alpine Space Ventures’ investor base, which includes many entrepreneurs and space industry pioneers—including more than 20 early SpaceX employees.

Other investors in the fund include the European Investment Fund (EIF), the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) and several prestigious family offices.

Concentrated portfolio

The fund, which aims to invest in an exclusive group of no more than 15 carefully selected startups delivering critical space capabilities, has added five companies to its concentrated portfolio to date:

K2 spacemanufacturer of extremely efficient and economical mega-class satellites for the era of mass harvest.

Reflex Aerospacebuilding payload-centric and scalable spacecraft in a fraction of the time historically achievable using a highly modular satellite bus.

Source of energy, manufacturer of spacecraft-ready solar panels, reducing delivery times of flight-proven power systems from years to weeks.

Black waveserial manufacturer of carbon fiber reinforced pressure vessels for launch vehicles and satellite systems.

“We look forward to leveraging the fund’s capital and continuing to support the best entrepreneurs in the industry,” he said Bulent Altan, Founding Partner at Alpine Space Ventures. “Above all, we invest in the best teams that have excellent market knowledge, put the customer first and quickly improve technical solutions to create the best possible commercial solution.”

Karan Kunjur, CEO and Co-Founder of K2 Space portfolio company he commented, “We are the newest addition to the Alpine Space Ventures portfolio, and yet we have already benefited from their support beyond their financial commitments. Bulent is a tremendous addition to our board, and we couldn’t be happier to have Alpine Space Ventures on our board.”

“Today is a great day for the ecosystem and beyond, as we are making a significant amount of smart money available to scale space solutions globally and across industries. We are still in the early stages of developing the European space ecosystem and I can’t imagine a better time to inject further momentum into it.”added Joram Voelklein, Founding Partner of Alpine Space Ventures.

“From day one, Alpine Space Ventures convinced us with its depth and experience in the industry”added Walter Ballheimer, CEO and co-founder of portfolio company Reflex Aerospace. ““Their technical expertise, understanding of market dynamics and networking are beyond anything we have seen in the industry.”

The announcement of the close of the €170 million early-stage fund comes at a key time as Europe builds a commercial space industry and strengthens its civil and defence infrastructure in response to a worsening climate and geopolitical environment. The final close of the fund follows previous announcements that included a landmark investment of €60 million by the European Investment Fund (EIF) in 2023 and a €10 million investment by the NATO Innovation Fund earlier this year.