Alpine Space Ventures, a firm specialising in early stage investments in the European space sector, today announced the final close of its maiden fund totalling €170 million.
The fund is primarily targeting Series A rounds and investing in start-ups that contribute to or leverage the global space industry to build early positions, with a particular focus on industrializing the space sector and hardware and software solutions around connectivity and data.
Alpine Space Ventures has a primary focus on investing in the European ecosystem, but also has geographic flexibility to invest in the US and other regions, leveraging the team’s industry relationships, notably with the early leadership team at SpaceX. A concentrated portfolio of no more than 10-15 companies.
The selected investments will receive an initial investment of up to €5 million, with a significant amount set aside for subsequent investment rounds.
Founding partner Bulent Altan served as an early leader at SpaceX since joining Elon Musk’s team in 2004 and overseeing avionics development for the Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Dragon capsules, and then the development of the early Starlink satellites, before retiring from the company in 2017. Founding partner Yoram Volklein has made successful technology investments since 2015, including a notable angel investment in launch company Isar Aerospace alongside Bulent, making him one of the early backers of the European space tech ecosystem.
This expertise is further strengthened by Alpine Space Ventures’ investor base, which is made up of many entrepreneurs in the space industry (including over 20 early SpaceX employees). Other investors behind the fund include the European Investment Fund (EIF), the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) and several prominent family offices.
“We look forward to leveraging the fund’s capital to continue backing the best entrepreneurs in the industry,” said Bulent Altan, founding partner at Alpine Space Ventures. “First and foremost, we are investing in the best teams that have a deep understanding of their markets, are customer-centric and are rapidly iterating on technical solutions to build the best possible thing.
“It’s a commercial solution.”
“We are the newest company to join Alpine Space Ventures’ portfolio and have already benefited from much more than their financial backing. Bulent has been a great addition to our board and we couldn’t be more grateful for that,” said Karan Kunjur, CEO and co-founder of portfolio company K2 Space.
“We are excited to add Alpine Space Ventures to our capital table.”
