One of the most advanced aerospace companies in the world focused on mining asteroids has just raised a new round of venture capital funding. And they’re planning to use it to pull off one of the most ambitious space missions in history.
What’s happening:
- Asteroid mining startup AstroForge has raised $40M USD in a new Series A financing round
- The round was led by Nova Threshold and saw notable participation from venture capital funds such as Intialized, Caladan and Y Combinator
The big idea:
- AstroForge has developed spacecraft that is purpose built for landing on asteroids and being able to recover metals from the surface
- AstroForge focuses on metallic asteroids that contain platinum group metals such as platinum and iridium for their refinery technology to land on and extract resources from asteroids
Why it matters:
- If AstroForge is successful with their next mission, it will represent the first time in history that a private company has landed on another body outside of the Earth-Moon system in space
By the numbers:
- Since inception, AstroForge has raised a total of $55M USD in venture capital funding
Going deeper:
- AstroForge plans to launch their Vestri probe into space for their upcoming mission in partnership with Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ: LUNR), who recently made waves by becoming the first for profit company to land a spacecraft on the Moon
The intrigue:
- Exploring space for extracting natural resources has led to a growing influx of new startups being formed, including the recent launch of Interlune who is aiming to mine Helium-3 from the Moon and landed Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian as a significant early investor
