Loft Orbital Achieves Unicorn Status with €170M Funding to Expand Satellite Constellations
January 14, 2025
Loft Orbital, a Franco-American space tech company, has successfully raised €170 million in a Series C funding round, aimed at accelerating the deployment of its satellite constellations.
This funding round values Loft at over $1 billion, marking its achievement of unicorn status, although the company has not officially confirmed this valuation.
With this latest funding, Loft's total capital raised exceeds €300 million, following a €140 million Series B round in 2021 led by BlackRock.
The Series C round was led by Tikehau Capital and Axial Partners, with participation from Temasek, Supernova Invest, Bpifrance, and several US investors.
Loft has already launched five satellites and currently has 30 satellites in production, including a constellation for Earth observation and another for the U.S. Department of Defense.
The company provides 'space infrastructure' by owning and operating satellites that clients can utilize for their missions, similar to cloud computing models on Earth.
Loft serves high-profile clients, including NASA, the US Space Force, and Microsoft, and has created a subsidiary called Loft Federal for classified US defense programs.
Since its inception in 2017, Loft has executed 25 missions and signed €500 million in commercial contracts, projecting €100 million in annual recurring revenues from these contracts.
The company aims to increase its launch rate from one satellite per year to ten, as stated by Emmanuelle Méric, the company's Europe director.
Loft has announced a joint venture in the United Arab Emirates to build satellites for the Middle East market and develop AI solutions for the space sector.
With backing from Temasek, Loft plans to expand its operations to Singapore, further establishing itself as an international entity.
Headquartered in Toulouse, France, and San Francisco, Loft employs nearly 100 staff from 20 different nationalities, contributing to a global workforce of 250.
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