Alpine Space Ventures, a Munich-based VC firm focusing on early-stage investments in the European space sector, has announced the final closing of its first fund with a total of €170 million. This announcement follows the €60 million investment by the European Investment Fund (EIF) in 2023 and €10 million investment by the NATO Innovation Fund earlier this year.
Investment strategy
The fund primarily targets Series A rounds to build an initial position, investing in startups that serve or utilise the global space industry. It focuses on the industrialisation of the space sector and hardware and software solutions around connectivity and data.
Alpine Space Ventures has a primary focus on investments in the European ecosystem but has some flexibility to invest in the US. It also plans to leverage the team’s industry relationships with the early leadership team of SpaceX.
Talking about the investments, a concentrated portfolio of nearly 10-15 select investment targets will receive up to €5 million initially with significant follow-on rounds.
Team behind Alpine Space Ventures
Founding Partner Bulent Altan has been an early leader at SpaceX having joined Elon Musk’s team initially in 2004 and overseeing the avionics development for Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and Dragon capsule and later the development of the initial Starlink satellites before leaving the firm in 2017.
Other founding partner Joram Voelklein has been investing in tech since 2015 with a notable angel investment in launch company Isar Aerospace, together with Bulent, that made him one of the earliest backers of the European space tech ecosystem.
“We are looking forward to putting the fund’s capital to work and continuing to support the industry’s best entrepreneurs”, said Bulent Altan, Founding Partner at Alpine Space Ventures. “First and foremost, we are investing in the best teams with a strong market understanding, who are putting customer-centricity first, and are iterating though technical solutions quickly in their pursuit to build the best possible commercial solution.”
“Today’s a great day for the ecosystem and beyond as we are making a significant volume of smart money available to scale up space-enabled solutions globally and across industries. We are still in the early days of the European space ecosystem and I could not imagine a better time to inject further momentum into it,” added Joram Voelklein, Founding Partner of Alpine Space Ventures.
Portfolio of investments
The current portfolio of Alpine Space Ventures includes the following space tech startups:
- K2 Space, a satellite manufacturer of extremely capable yet cost-efficient mega-class satellites for the era of mass abundance.
- Reflex Aerospace, building payload-centric and scalable spacecraft at a fraction of the time historically possible utilising a highly modular satellite bus.
- Morpheus Space, offering electric thrusters and software solutions to bring in space mobility to satellite operators.
- Blackwave, a series manufacturer of productised carbon-fiber reinforced pressure tanks for launch vehicles and satellite systems.
- Source Energy, an off-the-shelf producer of solar panels for spacecraft cutting delivery times of flight-proven power systems from years to weeks.
Karan Kunjur CEO and co-founder of portfolio company K2 Space commented, “We are the newest to have joined the Alpine Space Ventures portfolio and yet we have already benefitted from having them behind us beyond their financial commitment. Bulent is a tremendous addition to our board, and we could not be happier to have Alpine Space Ventures on our cap table.”
“Since day 1, Alpine Space Ventures has convinced us through their depth and industry experience,“ added Walter Ballheimer, CEO and co-founder of portfolio company Reflex Aerospace. “Their technical expertise, understanding of market dynamics, and network are beyond anything we have seen so far in the industry.”
What do we think about Alpine Space Ventures?
With its €170 million fund, this VC is set to significantly impact the European space tech ecosystem. By targeting Series A rounds and leveraging deep industry connections, it will support cutting-edge startups. The VC’s strategic investments and technical expertise promise to accelerate space industrialisation and innovative connectivity and data solutions, fostering global growth.
