Insider Brief
- Stoke Space has closed a $260 million Series C funding round, doubling its total investment to $480 million.
- Investors in the round include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Seven Seven Six, and Y Combinator.
- The new funds will support ongoing construction at Cape Canaveral’s historic Launch Complex 14, allocated for Stoke’s Nova launch vehicle. Additionally, the investment will aid in finalizing Nova’s development and enhancing Stoke’s private test facilities and manufacturing headquarters.
Stoke Space has announced a $260 million Series C funding round, doubling its total investment to $480 million. The funding will go towards the company’s mission to develop the first fully reusable medium-lift rocket, a step aimed at significantly reducing the cost of space transportation.
Investors in the round include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Seven Seven Six, and Y Combinator. CEO and co-founder Andy Lapsa noted the significance of the funding, stating, “This new investment validates our progress and enables us to accelerate the development of technologies that will redefine access to and from space.”
The funding follows Stoke’s recent successful vertical test of its first-stage Zenith engine, making it one of only two organizations globally to test a full-flow staged combustion engine. This engine design offers maximum efficiency, a critical feature for achieving reusable rocket technology. Stoke has also developed an actively cooled metallic reentry heat shield, a key innovation enabling rapid reuse of its upper-stage engine.
Lapsa emphasized the broader implications of reusable upper-stage technology, saying, “Rapid and reliable reuse of a rocket’s upper stage is the last big challenge to solve before mobility to and from space becomes akin to other forms of transportation. It represents a significant inflection in the space economy.”
The new funds will support ongoing construction at Cape Canaveral’s historic Launch Complex 14, allocated for Stoke’s Nova launch vehicle. Additionally, the investment will aid in finalizing Nova’s development and enhancing Stoke’s private test facilities and manufacturing headquarters.
Image credit: Stoke Space
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