Gilmour Space Technologie, Australia’s leading launch services company, has secured $61 million from global investors in what is the largest private equity investment raised by a space company in Australia.
Gilmour Space, which launched its first hybrid rocket in mid 2016, develops new launch vehicles powered by lower-cost, orbital-class hybrid propulsion technologies that use safer and lower cost fuels than traditional chemical propulsion rockets.
EO and Co-Founder, Adam Gilmour, said the Series C round, which includes US-based Fine Structure Ventures, Australian venture capital firms Blackbird and Main Sequence, and Australian superannuation funds HESTA, Hostplus, and NGS Super, brings the company’s total funds raised to date to $87 million.
“It’s fantastic to see the global support for our mission to build and launch lower cost rockets and satellites to orbit,” Mr Gilmour said.
“This new investment will give us runway to launch our first orbital rocket in 2022. It will help us develop multiple Eris vehicles, grow our team from 70 to 120 in the next 12 months, build our sovereign space manufacturing capability for rockets and satellites, and facilitate a commercial spaceport in Queensland, where we hope to launch the world’s first hybrid rocket to space.
With over 70 employees in its Gold Coast, Queensland rocket facility and a growing network of 300 partners and suppliers, Gilmour Space quickly emerged as a space manufacturing powerhouse in Australia.
Said Rick Baker, the Blackbird Ventures partner who led Gilmour Space’s first $5 million Series A round in 2017: “It’s been amazing to see what Gilmour Space has achieved so far in proving that they can build a reliable hybrid rocket engine capable of powering the next generation of launch vehicles.”
Martin Duursma, the partner at Main Sequence (a deep tech investment fund founded by CSIRO) who led the company’s $19 million Series B in 2018, added: “The Australian space industry is attracting significant investment, and Gilmour Space is leading the way. They are hiring, training, and building a new supply chain that is driving capabilities at scale across the whole space sector.”
