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
