Slingshot Aerospace, Inc., has raised $25 million in Series A-1 funds — the new money is in addition to the $9.6 million Series A funds raised in October of 2020, bringing the total raised for the A and A-1 rounds to $34.6 million, to date.
The oversubscribed A-1 round was co-led by Draper Associates and ATX Venture Partners. Additional participation in the round included Edison Partners, Embedded Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, Lockheed Martin Ventures, and more. Participation from previous investors also included Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Fund, Okapi Venture Capital and others. Since inception in July 2017, Slingshot Aerospace has raised $42 million in funding.
Slingshot Aerospace will use the new funds to accelerate the commercialization of its products and technologies, including Slingshot Beacon, the industry’s first space collision avoidance, cross-coordination and communications platform. The platform connects commercial, government and civil customers on one platform to better design, manage, and safeguard their satellites and other assets; mitigate risks; and ensure safe and reliable operations for all spaceflight operators. The company will also use the funds to hire 40 new employees over the next 12 months.
There are 115,000 satellites planned to enter space by 2030, which means more potential collision avoidance decisions will need to be made. Slingshot Aerospace is bringing the space domain into the digital environment to create a fully virtualized, dynamic orbital environment for its customers with its space simulation and analytics solutions.
Slingshot Aerospace is accelerating space sustainability by accurately virtualizing the space operating environment and layering in global coordination to remove uncertainty, reduce risk, and preserve assets that are vital to our way of life. The company works with organizations such as OneWeb, Spire Global Inc., Orbit Fab, U.S. Space Force, U.S. Air Force, NASA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and more.
“We invested in Slingshot Aerospace because the company is revolutionizing the space industry and bringing the global space-faring community together in a way that has never been done before,” said Tim Draper, Founding Partner, Draper Associates. “Slingshot Aerospace is charting a new course for humanity by building technologies and awareness to ensure space remains a safe and secure gateway of discovery. We share Slingshot’s desire to keep space a core tenet of our global economy for generations to come.”
“Space situational awareness is ripe for disruption,” said Daniel Herscovici, Partner, Edison Partners. “No common platform exists for satellite operators to communicate and collaborate in real time with actionable information to resolve on-orbit conjunctions and optimize global space awareness. We believe Slingshot has cracked the code and is well positioned to expand Slingshot Beacon and the company’s other products to every space operator around the world. The company’s offerings will keep the industry flying safer as the number of objects in space increases, while elevating sustainability across the international community for generations ahead.”
“Investment within the space industry is booming, with the majority of the funds being funneled into rockets and satellites; however, there is critical infrastructure that is necessary in order for these objects to be successful in space,” said Jenna Bryant, CEO, General Partner, and Co-founder, Embedded Ventures. “At Embedded, we invest in space technologies beyond the launch that meet at the intersection of innovation, national security, and safety. Slingshot Aerospace is providing a vital capability through Slingshot Beacon that will ensure safe space operations for years to come.”
“Data trust and transparency are imperative for humanity to continue operating in space,” said Melanie Stricklan, CEO & Co-founder, Slingshot Aerospace. “The opportunities are endless in space but we must unlock a digital revolution to optimize spaceflight operations and orbital asset management. Real-time coordination is necessary to provide more accessible, timely and accurate risk mitigation across all space faring organizations. Earth’s orbits should be considered critical infrastructure as humanity and our global economy depend heavily on it for safety and security. Slingshot is on a mission to accelerate space sustainability to ensure space continues to be the portal of progress and unity that the world needs for generations to come.”
