PARIS – Morpheus Space raised $28 million in a Series A funding round announced Sept. 14.
Alpine Space Ventures led the round. Morpheus Ventures, a Los Angeles company unrelated to Morpheus Space, participated in the round along with existing Morpheus Space investors.
“We raised more than we anticipated and could select the best partners for our round,” Daniel Bock, Morpheus Space CEO and co-founder, told SpaceNews. “All of our existing investors participated, which is also a great sign.”
With the influx of capital, Los Angeles-based Morpheus Space is, in a nutshell, “investing in scalability,” Bock said.
The company plans to establish a factory in Dresden, Germany, to produce thousands of propulsion systems annually. At the same time, Morpheus plans to expand its sales, business development, contracting and satellite operations organizations.
Morpheus, a company originally focused on producing miniature electric thrusters, has broadened the scope of its business to offer propulsion systems and software to help satellites maneuver in orbit and deorbit at the conclusion of their missions.
Last year, Morpheus unveiled a suite of products designed to reduce the cost and complexity of operating satellite constellations. The Sphere Ecosystem includes thrusters with nontoxic propellant, plug-and-play autopilot, space mission software and a web application.
Morpheus has raised $33 million since the company spun out of a German university in 2018. When announcing Morpheus’ first investment round in 2020, executives declined to say how much money they raised, preferring instead to draw attention to their high-profile investors: Germany’s Vsquared Ventures, Lavrock Ventures, Airbus Ventures, Pallas Ventures, Techstars Ventures and In-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm of the U.S. intelligence community.
Morpheus completed its Series A funding round before the Federal Communication Commission issued a draft order Sept. 8 setting a five-year rule for disposal of satellites in low Earth orbit. The rule, if adopted, is likely to increase demand for small satellite propulsion.
“It’s wonderful news for us as a propulsion company and wonderful news for the sustainability of the space industry,” Bock said. “I think it’s overdue. Five years is the right direction. Maybe in future that will be even less.”
