Italian space tech startup Kurs Orbital has raised €3.7M in seed funding to bring innovative solutions to the orbital servicing and logistics market. The round was led by leading European DeepTech VC firm OTB Ventures, with participation from Credo Ventures, Galaxia (CDP Venture Capital’s Italian Aerospace Technology Transfer Hub, in collaboration with Oblo Ventures and regional co-investment fund Piemonte Next, founded and managed by CDP Venture Capital and backed by Piedmontese financial institution Finpiemonte, aiming to maximize investments in regional innovation), In-Q-Tel (IQT), and Inovo (in alphabetical order).
Founded in 2022, Kurs Orbital is incubated at the Innovative Companies Incubator I3P of the Politecnico di Turin within the ESA BIC Turin Incubation Program. The startup aims to democratize in-orbit servicing solutions such as space debris removal, satellite repositioning, de-orbiting and satellite inspection by providing reliable and cost-effective rendezvous and docking technology. Its innovative ARCap module enables service and logistics industries that cannot afford to operate in the orbital market to expand their business.
This seed funding will allow Kurs Orbital to progress towards completing its first flight model, enable more rapid integration testing and expand its team as it aims to become a leading provider of this platform technology.
ARCap is a single standardized rendezvous module that can be integrated into any type of satellite, orbital transfer vehicle (OTV), cargo/crew vehicle, or spacecraft bus used by customers to enable transportation, life extension, on-orbit servicing, space debris removal, and more.
“This funding is critical to our next step in bringing powerful, cost-effective rendezvous technology to the market,” said Volodymyr Usov, CEO and co-founder of Cruz Orbital. “Our investors’ support will enable us to get to market faster and enable many other startups and companies to begin performing debris removal and satellite servicing operations that are essential for sustainable space operations.”
Vojtek Warniczek, Partner at OTB Ventures, added: “The Cruz Orbital team boasts a long and rich track record of designing and building rendezvous and docking systems in the government sector and we were immediately impressed with the right combination of their deep, unique expertise combined with a fresh perspective on technology and markets. This is a great example of our investment strategy in the broader space services market. With the timing right as the paradigm of the space environment changes, the company is uniquely positioned to commercialize and deliver this foundational platform for future space activities. We have assembled a strong consortium of investors to put Cruz Orbital on a solid foundation and enable a dynamic development timeline.”
“We are pleased to work with OTB Ventures to support Cruz Orbital’s groundbreaking venture into the on-orbit servicing and logistics market,” commented Claudia Pingu, Manager of the CDP Venture Capital Technology Transfer Fund. “This investment demonstrates that the Italian research and industrial ecosystem is one of the few in the world offering a fully integrated value chain in the space economy,” added Nicola Reddy, Managing Partner at Oblo Ventures.
Giuseppe Cerrato, President of I3P and Coordinator of ESA BIC Turin, commented: “We are very proud of this important funding round for Cruz Orbital, which joins the first group of start-ups in the ESA BIC Turin incubation program, aiming to bring to market a highly innovative and strategic technology for the development of future satellite platforms.”