Years ago, Tom Kelly, Evona co-CEO and co-founder, wanted to start a YouTube channel called "A Day in the Life of Jobs" to help people become familiar with a wide variety of potential careers. Through Evona, Kelly and his co-founders, are spreading the word about space sector jobs and helping companies recruit workers. Credit: Evona

SAN FRANCISCO – Evona, a U.K. space industry recruiting startup, is preparing to establish a U.S. office as part of a campaign to help satisfy global demand for space sector employees.

Bristol-based Evona has been growing rapidly since it was founded in 2018 to recruit workers for entrepreneurial space companies. Evona’s year-over-year revenue jumped more than sixfold in the last year and its staff has tripled in two years, the company announced March 17.

Evona already recruits workers around the world.

“About 60% of the business we do is in the U.S., about 30% in Europe, and about 10% is in Singapore, India, and all over the world, Tom Kelly, EVONA co-CEO and co-founder, told SpaceNews.

Evona helps companies identify and recruit workers with varied talents from RF, mechanical and systems engineering to welding and fabricating.

To expand the potential pool of space sector workers, Evona also organizes school and community events and panel discussions.

“There is a narrative that needs to be addressed for the space industry as a whole, which is that it’s more than astronauts,” Kelly said. “The space industry has the breadth of positions and the breadth of opportunities to inspire a whole load of people.”

Evona clients include Astrobotic, Capella Space, Honeybee Robotics, Masten Space Systems, Mobius Labs, Space Talent and York Space Systems.

“Evona has been an incredibly valuable partner in our own recruiting needs as well as supporting numerous companies through Space Talent,” Justus Kilian, Space Talent founder, said in a statement. “They’ve demonstrated the ability to find great talent at all layers of the space technology stack and fill a wide variety of business and technical roles.”

Jessica Maddin, Honeybee Robotics human resource generalist, said in a statement, “They have delivered top-quality candidates to us and helped us fill many hard-to-fill speciality roles … While I find it to be a little strange they are in the U.K. doing the U.S. recruiting, I am glad they are because they have helped us find some great talent!”

Before adopting the name Evona and creating a new website, the recruiting firm was called We Are Quattro.

Debra Werner is a correspondent for SpaceNews based in San Francisco. Debra earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in Journalism from Northwestern University. She...