K2 Space, a Torrance, California-based developer of large, high-power satellite platforms, has raised $250 million in Series C financing at a $3 billion valuation as it accelerates deliveries of what it describes as a new generation of spacecraft designed for the heavy-lift era.
The round follows $500 million in signed contracts across commercial customers and U.S. government customers. Redpoint led the financing, with participation from accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., as well as Hedosophia, Altimeter, Lightspeed, and Alpine Space Ventures.
Founded in 2022, K2 said it was built around the view that new and emerging launch vehicles, including Falcon 9, Starship, and New Glenn, will expand the practical size, power, and orbit flexibility of satellites. The company argues that heavier lift and more frequent access to space will support a shift away from platforms constrained to a single orbit and toward larger, higher-power spacecraft that can operate in low Earth orbit, medium Earth orbit, and geostationary orbit. K2 also pointed to the increasing demand for space-based communications and computing capabilities as drivers of higher-capacity platforms.
K2 said its early work has focused on building foundational subsystems that it believes the commercial supply chain has not fully delivered for large, high-power, resilient spacecraft. The company said it has designed hardware, including a high-power hall effect thruster, large solar arrays, a radiation-tolerant avionics suite, massive reaction wheels, and high-voltage power systems, among other subsystems. Earlier this year, K2 said it validated elements of its hardware through a hosted payload mission that tested its flight computer, reaction wheel, and avionics stack in space as it worked toward integrating an entirely in-house spacecraft system.
The next significant milestone for K2 is the planned March 2026 launch of GRAVITAS, which the company described as the first production unit of its “Mega Class” satellite. K2 said Mega is intended to fly on rockets such as Falcon 9, Vulcan, and Ariane 6, while delivering about 10 times the power of other satellites in its class. The company also said the platform is designed for multi-orbit operations and hardened for high-radiation environments, with redundancy and reliability features more commonly associated with human-rated vehicles.
K2 said the GRAVITAS mission will serve as its first spaceflight of a fully integrated system and will initiate a broad in-orbit test effort that includes firing a 20 kW hall effect thruster, deploying twin 10 kW solar arrays, and exercising a high voltage power system paired with radiation-tolerant avionics.
Looking beyond the first integrated flight, K2 said it plans to ramp up manufacturing at its 180,000-square-foot Torrance factory, which it said is sized to produce up to 100 high-power satellites per year. The company said that capacity is intended to support deliveries tied to its signed contract base. K2 also referenced customer interest from large operators, including SES, which has announced plans to partner with K2 for a future medium Earth orbit network. The company said multiple launches are planned across 2026 and 2027, with deployments for operational, commercial, and national security constellations beginning in 2028.
K2 also outlined plans for a larger platform, it calls Giga, which it said will be designed for super heavy lift vehicles, including Starship and New Glenn, and targeted to provide 100 kW of power per satellite. K2 said the higher power class is aimed at enabling new mission categories such as on-orbit compute, higher throughput networks across orbits, and larger space telescopes produced at a greater scale.
KEY QUOTES:
“Space is becoming one of the most strategically important technology sectors, and it’s attracting investment because the underlying demand is real and accelerating. What stands out about K2 is how much core hardware they’ve built themselves. They’re not assembling a satellite; they’re redefining the architecture needed for the next decade of missions.”
Elliot Geidt, Partner at Redpoint
“K2 is tackling one of the biggest limitations in the space economy: meaningful increases in power and scale. Their approach isn’t incremental. They’re rethinking satellite design from the ground up, and the result is a platform that can support entirely new classes of missions. That’s why we’re confident in the team and the trajectory.”
Jason Leblang, T. Rowe Price investment analyst
“Each subsystem had to be built to a new performance class. That engineering forms the basis of our high-power ‘Mega’ line, and it’s why we can take customers beyond the limits of the small-satellite era.”
Neel Kunjur, Co-Founder and CTO
“GRAVITAS brings our full stack together for the first time. We are validating the architecture in space, from high-voltage power and large solar arrays to our guidance and control algorithms, and a 20 kW Hall thruster, and we will scale based on measured performance.”
“Our north star is simple. If we build these platforms well, we get to ask new questions about what’s possible in orbit.”
Karan Kunjur, Co-Founder and CEO
“We pushed our propulsion hard on the ground and were thrilled to hot-fire at the full 20 kW. Now we’re eager to characterize the thruster’s performance in space.”
Rafael Martinez, who leads K2’s high-power electric propulsion program
“K2 is bringing something brand new to the space industrial base: low cost, high power satellites produced at speed and scale. Our innovative approach will enable entire satellite constellations of exquisite payloads – something unimaginable due to its prohibitive cost before K2 showed up.”
Dr. John Plumb, Head of Strategy at K2
