NanoRacks, a start-up that offers a commercial laboratory on the International Space Station (ISS), has raised US$2.6m in its first funding round. The financing was led by E-Merge, a Belgium-based venture capital firm that previously invested in open…
NanoRacks, a start-up that offers a commercial laboratory on the International Space Station (ISS), has raised US$2.6m in its first funding round.
The financing was led by E-Merge, a Belgium-based venture capital firm that previously invested in open nanosatellite platform NanoSatisfi.
Further investment came from angel investors Autumn Autrey, Esther Dyson, Kris Lichter and Ian Fichtenbaum via the AngelList venture investment platform.
Proceeds from the round are to be used primarily to support construction of NanoRacks’ new external ISS platform that is slated to begin offering sensor and electronics testing and hardware and satellite qualification services to customers in late 2014. The external rack is being built by EADS Astrium.
Laurent Drion, co-founder of E-Merge, commented: “We are very confident that NanoRacks is opening the door to a new era of utilization of both the International Space Station and space in general. Whether for their unique ability to deploy small satellites from the space station or for their lowering of operational costs for all users, it is no wonder that everyone from Virgin Galactic to NASA, from Planetary Resources to NanoSatisfi is using NanoRacks’ expertise”
The funding round also saw the formation of a holding company for NanoRacks, XO Markets Holding, which describes itself as the holding company for commercial space exploration.
Founded in 2009, NanoRacks entered into a Space Act Agreement with NASA that allowed it to self-fund its own research hardware and facilities as part of the US National Lab onboard the ISS. It then began to market those facilities commercially.
To fund this, the company raised US$495,000 in June 2011 through a seed round of financing from ten angel and venture investors.
NanoRacks has since expanded its offering and last year coordinated the first commercial deployment of a small satellite from the ISS.
The company’s focus is now on the development of its external platform program that will enable commercial payload testing and return outside of the space station. NanoRacks’ stated that the Astrium North America-built platform is on time and on budget for deployment in 2014.
Near Earth acted as the private placement agent for the round, having also done so on the seed financing. Angel investor Ian Fichtenbaum is also a VP at Near Earth.
