European Space Tech VC Funding Trends & Analysis

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Introduction
This guide provides an overview into the Space Tech ecosystem in Europe, exploring
the latest trends, key segments, prominent hubs, active investors, and the crucial
support provided by enablers like ESA, EUSPA, and E. Amaldi Foundation.
Space innovation had, for decades, been dominated by governments and
competition between countries. But since the early 2000s, space has become
increasingly commercialized, and the role of private investors, companies and
startups has grown massively, giving birth to the “New Space Economy”.
The global Space sector was worth over $469B in 2021, up 2.5x from $180B in 2005,
and is projected to grow up to 11% per annum till 2030. Notably, 77% of the market is
today commercial(1,2).
Globally, over $44B have been invested in Space Tech startups in the Upstream
sector (operating in space or developing products for space), peaking in 2021.
European Upstream Space Tech also peaked in 2021 at $2.5B due to megarounds
raised by OneWeb, but looking beyond that, 2023 has been the most active year
ever. 2024 is also showing very strong activity, nearly in line with last year even
lacking the presence of any megaround presence.

Classicaon : Internal
Space transportation and Satellites attracted the most funding in 2024, especially
launch vehicles and earth observation satellites. Since 2016, Earth observation
satellites and Communication and connectivity satellites has been the segment
attracting the most funding driven by OneWeb.

Classicaon : Internal
1) The Space Report 2022 Q2
2) Expanding frontiers: The down to earth guide to investing in space
European VC funding
Upstream investment
European Upstream Space Tech peaked in 2021 with over $2.5B raised due to
megarounds raised by OneWeb, but looking beyond that, 2023 has been the most
active year. The rest of the commentary on trends always excludes OneWeb from the
considerations. 2024 is projected to fall slightly short of 2023 total due to lack of
megarounds.
Looking at the number of rounds, 2024 is nearly on par with last year, with a slight
decline from 2022 but still significantly more activity than pre-pandemic levels. The
number might rise slightly due to a few undisclosed rounds.

Classicaon : Internal
Looking more broadly at the Downstream sector (space or space-derived technology
applied for use on Earth), we see instead funding peaking in 2022.
Upstream and Downstream space follow, in fact, different trends.
The Upstream trend is increasing as it is a product of industrial planning and strategic
positioning. At the same time, the Downstream trend is decreasing because of
macroeconomic trends that have impacted other industries globally (such as inflation
and interest rates ramp-up, energy crisis) which led to a decrease in VC funding in
a broad range of sectors.

Classicaon : Internal
Comparison with other industries
In 2024 Space Upstream funding is projected to slightly decrease in line with the
overall European VC market. Looking at the last 24 months space up has been one
of the best-performing sectors, growing 6% while the overall market declined 44%.
Space Upstream has also outperformed the wider Deep Tech sector (in which Space
Upstream is included).
However, Space Tech is still a small part of VC funding, attracting just 5% of the
funding going to Deep Tech in 2024, and less than 2 of every 100 dollars invested in
Europe went to Space Upstream, even when expanding to also Space Downstream
this is still less than 3 out of 100 dollars.