PAVE Space, a Swiss space infrastructure company, announced it has raised $40 million in seed funding to develop spacecraft designed to move satellites rapidly between orbits, positioning itself to address a growing bottleneck in the global space economy.
The funding round was led by Visionaries Club and Creandum, with participation from Lombard Odier Investment Managers, Atlantic Labs, Sistafund, b2venture, ACE Investment Partners, Ilavaska Vuillermoz Capital, and Pareto & Motier Ventures. The round ranks among the largest seed financings in the global space sector in recent years.
Founded in 2024 and based in Lausanne, Switzerland, PAVE Space is building a family of orbital transfer vehicles, or OTVs, capable of transporting satellites from low Earth orbit to higher-energy destinations such as geostationary orbit, medium Earth orbit, or even lunar trajectories in less than 24 hours.
Currently, most rockets deploy satellites only into low Earth orbit, requiring spacecraft to use onboard electric propulsion systems to gradually reach their final operating positions. This process can take six to twelve months, delaying revenue generation and tying up capital for satellite operators. PAVE aims to replace that process with rapid transfer capabilities, significantly reducing mission timelines and costs.
The company’s flagship system is a heavy kickstage vehicle designed to deliver satellites quickly and reliably to higher-energy orbits. Its architecture relies on storable bipropellants instead of cryogenic fuels, eliminating boil-off constraints and enabling longer-duration missions. In parallel, PAVE is developing a smaller mobile platform for responsive and dual-use missions, allowing satellites and payloads to reposition quickly across orbital locations.
PAVE’s platform is designed to operate with multiple launch providers, including SpaceX’s Falcon 9, Ariane 6, and systems from Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, enabling a launcher-agnostic logistics layer. This flexibility is expected to help European institutions, telecom operators, and defense organizations reach strategic orbits faster while reducing reliance on foreign systems.
The company was founded by Julie Böhning and Jérémy Marciacq, who previously co-founded the Gruyère Space Program, a European reusable rocket initiative. Their prior work included building a reusable rocket demonstrator that completed 53 test flights in 2024, shaping PAVE’s engineering approach of rapid iteration and full-stack control.
In recent months, the company has designed, built, and tested propulsion systems for its first mobile platform and opened a dedicated propulsion test facility in a converted Alpine power plant. It is preparing for its first in-space demonstration mission scheduled for October and has already secured eight reservation agreements with satellite operators and manufacturers.
The newly raised capital will be used to accelerate development of its heavy kickstage platform, execute its first in-orbit demonstration, expand engineering and operations teams, conduct propulsion system ground firings, and prepare for initial commercial missions.
PAVE’s long-term ambition is to establish itself as the logistics backbone of the space economy, enabling faster and more efficient movement of spacecraft across Earth orbit, lunar missions, and beyond.
KEY QUOTES
“The space economy is entering an industrial phase where logistics will become as critical in orbit as they are on Earth. Our ambition is to build the infrastructure that allows industries to move, operate and scale beyond Earth – while ensuring Europe retains sovereign capabilities in this next strategic domain.”
Julie Böhning, CEO and Co-Founder, PAVE Space
“Getting to space has become routine, but moving once you’re there has not. PAVE is building the logistics platform that will enable the next generation of commercial and industrial missions in space.”
Marton Sarkadi Nagy, Partner, Visionaries Club
