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Astroforge Raises $13M Seed Round For Asteroid Mining Ambitions

May 26, 2022•about 3 years ago

Amount Raised

$13 Million

Round Type

seed

Software

Description

Although we’ve long understood that asteroids are not simply the rubble of the universe, but potentially profitable stores of precious minerals, humanity has never been able to unlock this value. Y Combinator startup Astroforge wants to succeed where other companies have failed, by becoming the first to mine an asteroid and bring the material back to Earth — and it’s aiming to do so as early as the end of the decade.

Company Information

Company

Astroforge

About

To kickstart its operations, the startup has closed a $13 million seed round, financing which co-founder Matt Gialich says will fund Astroforge through its first two missions, including an initial demonstration flight that’s scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission next year. The company has already lined up a partnership with OrbAstro to manufacture the first satellite for the demo mission, and Astroforge has also acquired a spot on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission. The company currently has four full-time employees, but it’s actively hiring for seven more positions.“We now need to build a world-class team to go after this, as it’s a really hard problem to solve,” Gialich said. Gialich also shared that it won’t involve landing on an asteroid, as Astroforge is targeting bodies in the 20 meter to 1.5 kilometer in diameter range, meaning that some will be so small that they won’t even have gravitational fields.

Funding Insights

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