By Akash Sriram
Sept 16 (Reuters) – Impulse Space has raised $308 million in an extension of the Series D funding round, the startup building spacecraft to move satellites and other payloads said on Wednesday, as it looks to serve a backlog from commercial and government customers.
The extension valued the company at $5.6 billion, according to a source close to the company. SpaceX’s $86 billion IPO in June has bolstered investor enthusiasm for the space sector, helping improve the fundraising environment for companies such as Impulse.
The extension brings Impulse’s Series D financing to $808 million, following a $500 million round announced in June that valued the company at $4.26 billion.
The company also hired Vizio executive Adam Townsend as chief financial officer, as it scales production and works to turn a growing backlog of government and commercial contracts into revenue.
Investor demand for the round remained strong after it closed, President and Chief Operating Officer Eric Romo exclusively told Reuters, allowing Impulse to raise more capital to expand ahead of customer demand.
Impulse, founded by SpaceX’s first employee and its former propulsion chief, Tom Mueller, will use the new capital chiefly to accelerate hiring and manufacturing. It now has more than 600 employees and over 180 open roles.
“We looked at the plan and said, well, gosh, if we raise a little bit more, it’ll give us confidence that even if a pessimistic scenario happens in the future, we can hire and be a little bit ahead of the plans from customers,” Romo said.
Impulse has sold out its Caravan 2 and Caravan 3 Helios rideshare missions planned for 2028 and has booked additional dedicated flights, Romo said.
“The market, I think, has surprised us, if anything, to the upside as far as the reception of that product,” he said. “We’re really full on our manifest for Helios. So now we need to deliver on that for those customers.”
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
