K2 Space announced a $110 million Series B to ramp up mass production of its multi-orbit and high power satellite platform. The funding round was co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Altimeter Capital and it includes participation from existing investors Alpine Space Ventures, First Round Capital, and others.
This funding milestone comes as K2 celebrates the opening of its new 180,000-square-foot factory in Torrance, California, and the success of its first in-space demonstration, flying several critical components developed in-house. Since its inception, K2 Space has raised $180M in equity and won over $50 million in government and commercial contracts.
K2 Space is transforming the economics of satellite connectivity and functionality, having designed a resilient, high-power, and high-payload mass satellite platform at a cost that enables proliferation across orbits. And with increasing demand for increasing space applications requiring high throughput and levels of computing, K2’s solution provides an answer for customers who, until now, have been forced to trade between performance and affordability. The company also plans to use the newly raised capital to scale production, hire talent, and bring additional components in-house.
K2 Space recently announced a government contract for its first mission, “Gravitas,” – which is designed to demonstrate the platform’s ability to operate in the high radiation environment of medium-earth orbit (MEO) and perform the first of its kind low earth orbit (LEO) to MEO electric propulsion orbit raise. Taking advantage of the platform’s high power generation and versatile payload deck, the Gravitas mission will carry a mix of National Security and commercial payloads, demonstrating the ability to execute against critical mission areas while enabling a wide variety of space applications.
Along with winning new government and commercial business last year, the company scaled from 25 to 90 full-time employees and completed full activation and operation of all hardware launched on its first in-space mission, including the flight computer, microcontroller core board, motor controller, and reaction wheel. Given how much of the bus K2 is building in-house, this component mission represents a major milestone – burning down significant technical risk in preparation for Gravitas.
KEY QUOTES:
“Advanced space capabilities can’t be built on small, low-powered platforms, but higher capability satellites have been far too expensive for most proliferated applications. This is the gap K2 fills – making highly capable, powerful satellites available to a much broader market. And because our satellites are designed to proliferate in higher orbits, our constellations require fewer satellites and fewer launches to provide global coverage.”
“We’ve attracted huge interest from both commercial and national security customers, who tell us that the platform we’ve designed is unique, differentiated, and unlocks a multitude of pressing applications for their organizations. As we’ve been able to prove out our technology and price point, customers have expressed greater excitement – but also urgency – in what we’re building. The Series B is a vote of confidence from our investors, and importantly, allows us to more quickly address what is a critical gap in the market.”
- Karan Kunjur, CEO at K2 Space
“We are at the dawn of a Space Supercycle,” said Erik Kriessmann, Partner at Altimeter Capital, “where new launch vehicles and reduced-cost, reliable access to space are transforming the entire market. K2 Space is taking advantage of this paradigm shift by mass-manufacturing multi-mission satellites that deliver unprecedented capabilities and enable multi-orbit constellations. As the demands of space operations evolve, so too must the capabilities of satellite builders.”
- Connor Love, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners
