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community spotlight

weekly industry meetups

view calendar - it’s Davos World Economic Forum week!

tomorrow, 01/20
  • Acquired meetup (NY).

  • Sandbar wearables breakfast (NY).

  • Friends x founders mixer (NY).

  • Pitch roast (NY).

wednesday, 01/21
  • Vast tour x BizVets (LA).

  • Climate stand up (LA).

  • Wildfire defense x UCLA (LA).

  • Data panel (SF).

  • YC x GTM masterclass (NY).

  • Climate changemakers (NY).

  • Founder supper club (NY).

  • VC winter mixer (NY).

  • Dinner club x brandmakers (NY).

  • SFA chapter meeting (Rocket City)

thursday, 01/22

  • Climate cocktails (LA).

  • NASA JPL tour (LA).

  • Climate x Series A supper club (LA).

  • Deep + Space tech happy hour (NY).

  • Founder x VC coffee (NY).

  • Longevity salon (NY).

  • Founder circle (NY).

  • Wharton VC trek (NY).

  • Drugs x bio developer meetup (NY).

  • Design engineer meetup (NY).

saturday, 01/23
  • Climate & energy exchange (NY).

  • Early stage founders x funders meetup (NY).

  • Tech ladies meetup (NY).

  • Pre-NYFW AI meetup (NY).

sunday, 01/24
  • eVTOLs x Caltech panel (LA).

upcoming

  • Venture in the Capital (Georgetown).

  • Longevity x David Sinclair (SF).

  • Spacecom x Ben Schleuniger x Orbital Operations (Orlando)

space brew

weekly capital flows

government

  • L3Harris, GD, HII, Vertex, Leidos win $25.4B DoW award for microelectronics supply (GC).

  • CACI wins $416M US Navy award for maritime command-and-control modernization (GC).

  • General Dynamics wins $120M USAF award for zero trust cybersecurity across 187 global bases (GC).

  • Slingshot Aerospace wins $27M USSF award for AI-based simulation training agents (VS).

pre seed / seed

  • Terra Industries exits stealth with $12M by 8VC, Valor, Lux for drone intelligence (X).

  • CRC exits stealth with $4M by BDC, Garage, Ripple, Panache for Canadian sovereign medium-lift launch (BK).

  • Diffraqtion raises $4M Pre Seed by DARPA, QDNL, Aether for quantum EO & ISR cameras (SN).

  • Aule Space raises $2M Pre Seed for satellite agnostic docking tech (X).

series A+

  • Skid AI raises $1.4B Series C at $14B valuation by SoftBank, NVentures, Macquarie, Bezos Expeditions, Lightspeed, Sequoia for general-purpose physical AI (SA).

  • Harmattan raises $200M Series B by Dassault Aviation for ISR, c-UAS, EW systems (AT).

  • Interstellar Tech raises $120M Series F by Toyota, SBI, Nomura, Space Frontier for launch capacity (SD).

  • Mediar Therapeutics raises $76M Series B by Amplitude, ICG for fibrosis drug collab with Eli Lilly (LT).

  • Hydrosat raises $60M Series B by Hartree, Subutai, OTB for thermal IR data for climate & agriculture (SN).

  • Aikido raises $60M Series B by DST, PSG, Singular for application security (SW).

  • Novee exits stealth with $52M Series A for penetration testing (SW).

  • Depthfirst raises $40M Series A by Accel, Mantis for AI-native vulnerability security (TC).

  • Converge Bio raises $25M Series A by Bessemer, TLV, Saras for AI-led drug discovery (TC).

  • EtherealX raises $21M Series A at a $80.5M valuation by TDK Ventures, BIG Capital, Accel for medium-lift launch (TC).

  • Project Eleven raises $20M Series A by Coinbase for quantum cryptography for bitcoin & Solana architecture (SW).

  • Konnex raises $15M by Cogitent, Liquid, Block Maven for robot-as-a-service marketplace (PL).

  • SkyFi raises $13M Series A by Buoyant, IronGate for SAR, hyperspectral, aerial geospatial imagery (VS).

  • Superlinear raises $7M Series A by to scale OS for logistics, ports, and military (TPV).

m&a

  • Intuitive Machines acquires Lanteris Space Systems for $800M cash-stock to vertically integrate manufacturing capacity (GC).

  • Crowdstrike acquires Seraphic for $420M cash-stock for browser security (SW).

  • Quantum Computing to acquire Luminar lidar assets for $22M on bankruptcy filings (TC).

IPO / public

  • Redwire restructures into space & defense LOBs, focussing on microgravity pharma R&D & UAV ISR missions (GC).

DIU, DoW are offering up to $100M dollars in prizes for air, ground, and water drone swarm command-and-control prototype.

headlines

  • NASA selects AtmOCube for heliophysics program to mitigate GPS drag in LEO (SN).

  • Pentagon launching c-UAS marketplace (ASF).

  • Starlab Space & Mitsubishi partner on payload capacity & on-orbit R&D labs (SS).

  • Eutelsat & MaiaSpace partner on launch services for NTN payload (VS).

  • Airbus partners with Aalyria, CesiumAstro, Eutelsat for 5G NTN LEO satellites by 2028 (VS).

  • Xona Space & Aerospacelab partner on remote sensing satellite production (VS).

  • Open Cosmos secures Liechtenstein’s Ka-band spectrum for sovereign European LEO broadband (VS).

  • Taiwan commits $250B direct + $250 credit to US semiconductor manufacturing & energy (TC).

  • CesiumAstro invests $200M in 270,000 sq ft manufacturing facility for phased array systems in Texas (SN).

  • Sodern domesticates star tracker production in Colorado for 40+ US customers (VS).

  • Mangrove Lithium invests $85M to expand lithium refining facility for 25,000 EVs annually (BK).

  • Australia signs $801M critical minerals deal on Antimony, Gallium for defense & semiconductors (WSJ).

  • Voyager wins patent for in-space manufacturing of exotic optical fiber crystals (SN).

  • Lockheed Martin & GE Aerospace demo hypersonic engine & RDR propulsion (SN).

  • India DRDO demos hypersonic missile combustor tech (AT).

orbital classifieds

weekly insights.

[Exclusive] U.S. Space Economy Annual Report 2025.

The architecture of the space economy has shifted. While 2024 was in the lab, 2025 evolved from prototype to operations. We’ve mapped the “invisible” 88% of the ecosystem.

Inside the report:

  • The 95% launch cost collapse.

  • The orbital data center nirvana.

  • The “Debris Tax” blocking mission range.

As a valued subscriber, you have direct access to decision-grade signals defining 2026.

1) Spiral Blue - Raising $6M Seed.

Founder: Taofiq Huq, MJ Akter

Lidar for geospatial intelligence.

2) Strident Space - Raising Pre Seed.

Founder: Alexander Mikhaylov

Modular space station.

3) BlueShift - Raising $10M Seed.

Founder: Deep Patel

Mining tech. REE refining from coal fly ash. Sell metals, oxides to defense primes, fabs, & hardware facilities. Founded by MIT nuclear engineer, backed by ConocoPhillips. Hardware + software tech reduces OPEX by 3x.

4) Aviary AI - Raising Seed.

Founder: Karishma Inamdar

Edge AI software for in-orbit data intelligence. Founded by engineers from NASA, ESA, Google, and CalTech.

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