K2 Space, a startup with SpaceX veterans building monster satellites, raises $50 million

Los Angeles-based startup K2 Space raised $50 million in new funding as the corporate works to construct monster satellites to match the large rockets which can be coming to market. 

Nearly two years since founding, K2 co-founders and brothers CEO Karan Kunjur and Chief Technology Officer Neel Kunjur count on to launch their first satellite tv for pc on a demonstration mission later this yr.

The firm’s newest fundraiser was led by tech investor Brad Gerstner’s Altimeter Capital and joined by Alpine Space Ventures, including to the $8.5 million in seed funding it raised from buyers together with First Round Capital and Republic Capital. K2 declined to specify its valuation after the newest spherical.

“This round is effectively built for the demand that we’re seeing for launching constellations of the Mega class satellites,” Karan Kunjur advised CNBC.

K2’s Mega class satellite tv for pc bus — the bodily construction of a spacecraft that gives energy, motion and extra — is sized to slot in “heavy” and “super heavy” rockets. Some of these rockets are presently in operation, akin to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets or United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan, and a few are anticipated to return to market within the coming years, together with SpaceX’s Starship, Blue Origin’s New Glenn and extra.

The firm advertises its Mega satellite tv for pc for $15 million every and says they’re able to supporting as much as one ton of payload mass every. At that measurement, K2 would have the ability to match 10 Mega satellites in a Falcon 9 rocket.

“We have a pretty modular design, where the customers can dial in just how much payload mass they want, how many satellites they want to launch, and how much propellant they want to carry,” Neel Kunjur stated, including that “the intent is basically to give a customer a menu of options where they can dial it into their given mission needs.”

K2’s upcoming demonstration mission goals to point out quite a few undisclosed prospects that its Mega design works. In addition to discussions with varied industrial “large satellite operators,” Karan Kunjur famous that K2 has gained about $6.5 million in Department of Defense contracts over the previous eight months.

“There are different parts of the DOD that are incredibly excited about the capability that we’re able to offer at the constellation level,” Karan Kunjur stated.

K2 presently has a 15,000 sq. foot facility in Torrance, California, and 28 staff, lots of whom, like Neel Kunjur, boast years of prior expertise at SpaceX.

The Kunjurs count on to make use of the recent funds so as to add a 150,000 sq. foot facility later this yr and develop the corporate to greater than 50 staff because it prepares to start producing satellites.

“The goal is really to get into [the larger facility] by the end of the year and be able to start switching gears into mass production … to really make sure we’re hitting the scale that our customers are asking for,” Karan Kunjur stated.

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