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Bulgarian space company EnduroSat has raised USD 205 million in a funding round co-led by Riot Ventures and Atreides Management, the company said on Wednesday. The funding will support a new high-volume manufacturing facility in the United States and the construction of the EU's largest space and defence hub. It will also allow EnduroSat to expand its satellite capabilities and move to larger spacecraft in its ESPA-class FRAME line.
The company plans to further standardize satellite production and manufacture spacecraft at higher volumes. It aims to reduce the cost of space data to roughly USD 1 per gigabyte, from hundreds of dollars per gigabyte currently, which it says would make satellite data more accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises.
The funding round is backed by the European Innovation Council, Google Ventures, Founders Fund, House Capital, Lux Capital, Omnes Capital, Giant Ventures, Emphatic Capital and Endeavor Catalyst.
EnduroSat has launched 103 satellites into orbit and delivered more than 200 for missions worldwide, according to the company. Founder and CEO Raycho Raychev said the company aims to democratize access to space data by reducing technical complexity and supply chain difficulties.
Atreides Management Founder, Managing Partner, and CIO Gavin Baker said lower-cost and more frequent access to orbit was expanding the number of companies able to use space-based capabilities. Riot Ventures Co-founder Stephen Marcus highlighted EnduroSat's planned manufacturing facilities in the EU and United States as key to increasing its capacity.
At a ceremony at the Elysee Palace on September 10, EnduroSat and Arianespace signed a memorandum of understanding. Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said the agreement would open the way for deeper cooperation between Bulgaria and France in high technology and space. It builds on a memorandum signed about a month earlier between the Bulgarian government and EnduroSat for the construction of a new satellite development and manufacturing centre in Bulgaria.
Source: Bulgarian News Agency