The Exploration Company funding talks target $300M at $2B valuation

The Exploration Company funding talks are seeking at least $300 million at a valuation of more than $2 billion, according to the Financial Times, which cited people familiar with the discussions. The deal would put a high price on a four-year-old European spacecraft manufacturer trying to give the region its own way to return cargo from orbit, despite a recent test that ended with the loss of customer payloads.

The round has not closed, and The Exploration Company has not confirmed the size or valuation. The EU’s Scaleup Europe Fund, managed by EQT, is expected to participate, according to the Financial Times. Annual revenue was not disclosed.

What does The Exploration Company make?

The Exploration Company, founded in July 2021, is building a reusable space capsule and related subsystems. Its pitch is that Europe needs domestic return-to-Earth capability, because European customers can send cargo into space on U.S. rockets but currently depend on non-European capsules to bring materials back.

That gap matters for research and industrial users such as pharmaceutical companies running experiments on the International Space Station. Without a European return vehicle, samples sent to orbit cannot come back on a European-built capsule.

The company also offers transport services and sells components through an open-interface catalogue, allowing other aerospace companies to buy existing hardware rather than develop each piece internally. The company says it employs about 400 people across Munich, Bordeaux, Oberpfaffenhofen, Italy, France, Houston and the MENA region.

Chief executive Hélène Huby co-founded the company with Artur Koop, Sebastien Reichstadt, Pierre Vinet and Jon Reijneveld. The founding team had previously worked together on European space programs at Airbus and ArianeGroup, including the Orion European Service Module.

Why is the valuation rising after a failed test?

The valuation under discussion is about four times the level estimated by Premier Alternatives in December 2024, when the secondary-market tracker put the company’s value at roughly $470 million. That jump is notable because The Exploration Company’s Mission Possible demonstrator did not complete its June 2025 flight as planned.

The spacecraft re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, but communications failed shortly before splashdown, resulting in the loss of customer payloads. The company described the mission as partly successful, saying it achieved several objectives before the failure.

The funding market for spacecraft manufacturers has remained active. Reuters reported that spacecraft companies raised $2.36 billion across 26 deals in the 12 months before July 2026, equal to 43% of all space-sector investment during that period.

Who is backing the company?

The Exploration Company raised about €150 million in a Series B round in November 2024 led by Balderton Capital and Plural. Other investors in that round included Bessemer Venture Partners, EQT Ventures, Cherry Ventures, Bpifrance, Bayern Kapital, NGP Capital, Omnes Capital, Promus Ventures, Red River West, French Tech Souveraineté and Germany’s DeepTech and Climate Fonds.

The new capital is intended to support development of a capsule for the ISS and its planned successor. Huby has said the company has signed contracts worth €850 million, compared with about €225 million raised. Most of those orders come from the European Space Agency and station operators, rather than commercial customers.

U.S. peers have also raised large rounds before completing major demonstrations. SpaceNews reported that Sierra Space raised $550 million in March 2026 at an $8 billion valuation, while its Dream Chaser spaceplane had not yet flown a demonstration mission. Vast raised $500 million in the same month. The difference for The Exploration Company is that it is selling into a European market with less history of buying commercial cargo services from private suppliers.

This story draws on original reporting from TechFundingNews.