The company attracted the resources of its shareholder Primo Capital – Primo Space, lead investor Hyperion Fund, CDTI Innvierte, and others
Pangea Aerospace, a Barcelona-based aerospace startup, closed a 23 million euros capital increase that attracted the resources of lead investor Hyperion Fund, Primo Capital (through Primo Space which is a company shareholder since 2021 – see here a previous post by BeBeez), CDTI Innvierte (the Spanish innovation agency), André-Hubert Roussel, the former ceo of Ariane Group), and others (press release).
Pangea will invest such resources in enhancing its production, integration and testing capabilities, doubling its workforce, promoting the development of strategic technologies useful for strengthening European space sovereignty at a time of great change in the global geopolitical context, as well as accelerating its expansion in the European market, aiming to consolidate its private and institutional customer base.
Adrià Argemì, Rasmus Bergstrom, Xavier Llairo, Federico Rossi, and Nicola Palumbo founded Pangea in 2018. The company has an office in Toulouse (France) and develops advanced propulsion technologies enabling more efficient and reusable rockets based on the use of sustainable propellants. Pangea’s solutions offer an efficient and sustainable alternative for mobility in space, helping to significantly reduce the costs of launchers, satellites and orbital transfer vehicles.
Pangea founders have a background in the aerospace and business sectors and have experience in companies like Airbus, Northrop Grumman and AVIO. Argemí, Palumbo, Rossi, and Bergström are alumni of Università La Sapienza di Roma.
With this transaction, Hyperion Fund started its investment phase after having raised 150 million to allocate in the sectors of aerospace, cybersecurity, AI, and defence. After appraising over 220 companies, Hyperion is currently negotiating with companies in NATO countries, leaders in the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics, geolocation, photonics, electromagnetics, and aeronautics.
The European Space Agency (ESA) recently selected Pangea for designing and developing the high thrust rocket engine for future European reusable launchers and is also involved in several programmes for the development and integration of its ARCOS engine and the reuse of the upper stages of the rocket using the aerospike technology. The company also collaborates with ESA and a consortium of European companies to design, manufacture and validate key technologies for the next generation of large space engines, through two strategic contracts that strengthen its position as a major player in the space propulsion landscape in Europe.
Currently, an average of four to five satellites are launched into space per day, in addition to the approximately 10,000 already in orbit. By 2025, projections indicate that between 2,500 and 3,000 satellites will be launched, thanks to the expansion of mega-constellations and new initiatives in telecommunications and Earth observation.
The 2023 data say that US players (84.4% SpaceX) carried on 52% of these launches. Chinese firms made 30% of the launches. European authorities are striving to develop their capabilities in this critical area, essential for telecommunications, mobility and defence, in order to achieve strategic independence as soon as possible.
Propulsion systems typically account for 30% of the total development cost of a rocket. Moreover, they define the performance of a launcher and are responsible for 50% of launch failures, making them a key factor in the development of the industry.
Pangea Aerospace is a leading European company for the space propulsion and provides small engines for spacecraft to high-thrust systems for launchers. The company’s business model takes inspiration from the strategy that Rolls-Royce applies to the aircraft industry and that received the validation from several private customers.
The company’s competitive advantage lies in its proprietary technology which allows for more efficient and cost-effective propulsion systems and enable customers to maximise launch performance while reducing development time and costs through special know-how on advanced materials and alloys, aerospike technology, additive manufacturing, innovative cooling systems, reusability, and sustainable propellants.
This expertise is crucial for the future of the industry and strengthens Pangea’s position as a global leader in space propulsion and has been the first player in the world to successfully test-fire an aerospike engine using sustainable propellants such as liquid methane and oxygen, a technology known for its scalability, sustainability and reusability.
Pangea raised 8 million to date andestablished itself as a major player in the sector while relying on the support of key investors such as Primo Space, which always believed in the quality of the team and its technologies. In May 2021, the company closed a 3 million round, cashed in a 0.071 million grant in September 2018 and a 1 million venture round in January 2020(see here a previous post by BeBeez).
The company currently has eight active contracts with private and institutional customers and expects to double its revenue by 2025, with a commercial pipeline exceeding120 million.
