The Exploration Company, which builds the reusable Nyx cargo capsule, announced a $450 million Series C on September 8, the largest Series C yet for a European space company, per European Spaceflight. Bessemer Venture Partners, Atomico, and the Scaleup Europe Fund co-led, with four existing European backers following on. Total raised is about $680 million. The company reports more than $2 billion in contracts and commitments, ESA among them, and aims to dock Nyx with the ISS and bring it home before November 2028. That is roughly three dollars of signed business for every dollar raised, before the full-scale capsule has flown. Hélène Huby founded it and still runs it.
Scaleup Europe again. The fund is managed by EQT against a €5 billion target, with the European Commission among its founding investors, and its brief is keeping Europe's strongest deep-tech companies at home, per the Commission. It co-led Mistral's EUR 3 billion round on the same day. Two record rounds, one public-policy LP in both pref stacks. No valuation was disclosed, so outside holders cannot size their dilution yet. The natural buyer for a capsule maker is a US prime, and a co-lead chartered to keep companies European is unlikely to wave that sale through, which narrows the exit before the company has flown.
Bottom Line
Scaleup Europe is now the anchor co-lead for Europe's biggest rounds. Founders taking its money should negotiate exit terms now, since a sovereign-minded LP matters most when the buyer is American.