Cocoa-based rocket company Vaya Space Inc. just took off with $12 million in new fundraising, CEO Kevin Lowdermilk told Orlando Inno.
Why this story matters: Funding deals by technology companies can lead to high-wage job creation, the development of solutions that help other local businesses and company growth that diversifies the region’s economy.
Vaya Space this month closed a $12 million round, per a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
The company also recently opened another funding round, seeking $9 million, another SEC filing showed. The company already has $1.5 million committed from investors to that funding round, Lowdermilk said.
This infusion of capital will take Vaya Space’s rocket research into the real world in 2023. Formerly known as Rocket Crafters, Vaya Space developed the Star 3-D rocket engine, a hybrid engine that uses liquid and solid propellant, and the Dauntless rocket, to launch payloads into space for the growing small satellite sector.
Vaya Space boasts it’s capable of building a launch vehicle, integrating a customer payload and being ready to launch in 30 days. Plus, Vaya touts its rocket technology is environmentally friendly because it’s fueled by recycled plastics, with the Dauntless rocket using 20 metric tons of recycled thermoplastics.
Vaya Space will use the new funds to do the first full-scale engine test in March and the first-stage rocket performance test in July, Lowdermilk said. Vaya Space’s first launch is expected in early 2024, he added. “This year is all about execution for Vaya Space.”
After Vaya Space last year more than doubled the size of its staff to 60 employees, the company will add more jobs this year, though Lowdermilk didn’t specify how many.
Lowdermilk didn’t disclose the names of investors, but he said Vaya Space’s investors include family offices, high-net-worth individuals and existing shareholders of the private company. The company this year will raise more money with the support of an investment bank, Lowdermilk said. “Beyond that raise, no additional capital requirements are anticipated.”
Vaya Space aims to bring innovative technology to the fast-growing realm of small satellites, often called smallsats. Launches of these satellites, defined by Alexandria, Virginia-based consulting firm Bryce Space & Technology LLC as roughly 1,320 pounds or less, are increasing. In 2021, 1,743 of these satellites were launched, compared to 1,202 in 2020 and just 389 in 2019, per the latest data from Bryce Space & Technology.
Smallsats are just one factor causing satellite use to skyrocket, and Space Florida President and CEO Frank DiBello recently told Orlando Inno the aerospace industry expects up to 100,000 satellites to have been launched by 2030.
That creates opportunities for launch companies on the Space Coast like Vaya Space, but it also will spark other economic activity across Central Florida, DiBello said.
“All of those satellites are going to be taking pictures and transmitting data and producing a ton of information that has to be brought down. That's going to spawn thousands of companies here on the ground taking that information and working with it to shape it and synthesize it, because you don't need big data. You need data good enough to make your decisions.”
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