Europe's Exploration Company seeks UAE investors for $200m financing round

The Exploration Company (TEC), a European aerospace start-up with a presence in the UAE, is seeking $200 million from global backers and is targeting sovereign and institutional investors in the Emirates as it prepares a Series C financing round, chief executive Helene Huby told The National. The capital will be used to prioritise development of what TEC calls “the biggest rocket engine ever developed in Europe” while advancing a UAE-built lunar lander demonstrator being developed with the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC).

“The target is $200 million and we're going to use that money to focus on rocket engine [project] as we're developing the biggest rocket engine ever developed in Europe,” Ms Huby said, adding: “We will be looking for lead investors in this part of the world.”

Context and investor backing

TEC has so far raised $335 million and counts a mix of venture and state-linked backers among its existing investors. Those investors include EQT Ventures, Red River West, Cherry Ventures, Partech, Promusventures and Vsquared Ventures, which Ms Huby said are “very excited about what we're doing” and intend to participate in the next round.

• Past fundraising: Series B originally targeted $80 million but grew to roughly $240 million after inviting more investors when milestones were met; Series A and Series B were the largest rounds raised by a European space start-up at the time.
• Potential UAE partners: TEC is in initial talks with UAE sovereign and institutional investors such as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment holding company, and is exploring co-investment and strategic investor options.
• Corporate footprint: Founded in 2021, TEC operates from Germany, France, Italy, Houston and Dubai and is the first European company to sign a Space Act Agreement with NASA.

Projects and technical focus

TEC is developing Nyx, a modular, reusable space vehicle intended to launch on heavy carriers and ferry cargo to and from low Earth orbit and cislunar stations. The company is also collaborating with NASA on a space capsule and is contributing the majority of development capital to a lunar lander demonstrator with MBRSC. The demonstrator could cost as much as $20 million, with TEC contributing about 85 per cent, and is due to enter a critical testing phase next year.

Ms Huby framed the plan within a growing market opportunity, saying TEC expects space transport to expand from about $5 billion today to $50 billion within the next decade. “We will see a time when it costs about $100 to send 1 kilogram to orbit, and that's going to be transformational for what we can do in space … how we can explore space,” she said.

Outlook

TEC’s outreach to UAE investors comes as the Emirates positions itself as a regional space hub and home to major sovereign wealth funds including ADIA, Mubadala Investment Company and the Investment Corporation of Dubai. Ms Huby said discussions in Abu Dhabi have been positive: “I think people are excited to see someone who has a huge ambition”, and she emphasised TEC’s desire to share “key technologies across nations” while “building a future for us in space, which is more collaborative.”