PLD Space has had a remarkable year. The Elche-based launch company has raised €210 million in 2026 alone, anchored by Europe’s largest equity round for a launch company and backed by some of the most strategic investors in the sector. With MIURA 5 approaching its maiden orbital flight from French Guiana later this year, PLD Space is positioned at the center of Europe’s push for sovereign access to space.
Daniele Dallari is Sales and Customer Manager at PLD Space, leading commercial customer engagement as the company prepares to bring MIURA 5 into service. The two-stage vehicle is designed to carry up to 1,040 kilograms to low Earth orbit, and Dallari’s role is to translate Europe’s growing demand for dedicated small-launch capability into long-term commercial relationships.
Dallari brings more than 15 years of international B2B sales experience to the role, with a strong technical background in launch services. Before joining PLD Space, he was Sales Manager at Southern Launch, Australia’s privately operated spaceport provider, where he led launch campaign preparation, regulatory interfaces, and commercial customer acquisition. The move from Australian spaceport operations to a European launch company reflects the broader trajectory PLD Space itself represents: building scalable, commercially driven launch capability in Europe.
The capital raises tell the company’s momentum story. In March 2026, PLD Space closed a €180 million Series C led by Mitsubishi Electric, the largest equity round raised by a European launch company. In April, the European Investment Bank signed a €30 million venture debt facility to support MIURA 5’s final development. The investment thesis is explicit and increasingly shared at the institutional level: Europe needs dedicated small-launch capability beyond Ariane 6 and Vega-C, and PLD Space is well-positioned to provide it from the Guiana Space Centre at a capacity of up to 30 missions per year.
The company’s trajectory has been built on demonstrated execution. MIURA 1, PLD Space’s suborbital demonstrator, flew successfully in 2023, making PLD Space the first private European company to reach space with a liquid-fueled rocket. MIURA 5 builds on that engineering heritage, scaling the vehicle architecture from demonstration into commercial service for European institutional and commercial customers.
At SmallSat Europe, Dallari joins a defense-stage panel titled “Launch panel: European access to space for defense,” alongside ESA’s Dr. Dietmar Pilz and SpaceNews’ Jeff Foust. SatNews reported in February 2026 on the global shift toward sovereign launch as U.S. allies build independent access to orbit. The panel addresses how Europe’s launch ecosystem can best meet the cadence and resilience demands of European defense procurement, and PLD Space sits squarely at that intersection.
For European institutional buyers, commercial customers, and defense planners watching the launch landscape evolve, PLD Space is one of the most concrete examples of what a next-generation European launch company looks like: well-capitalized, technically validated, commercially focused, and on track to bring meaningful new capacity online.
