ALDORIA closes €10M Series A
Funding
ALDORIA a pioneer in the field
of Space Situational Awareness (SSA), announces the
close of its Serie A funding round, securing €10M in
equity
investments from a strong syndicate, bringing the
total amount of investment in the company to €22M to
date. The consortium includes Startquest Capital,
the European Innovation Council Fund,
the French State, through its
“Deeptech 2030” fund managed by Bpifrance, Expansion
Ventures,
Space Founders France, and Wind Capital. To support
this new stage of development, the company is
strengthening its brand. Effective today, Share My
Space becomes ALDORIA, a former name of the Pleiades
nebula.
The funding round was led by
Starquest, a dedicated advocate for green financing
through Article 9 of the EU Sustainable Finance
Disclosure Regulation. Article 9 mandates that
investments must have sustainable objectives.
ALDORIA’s mission to protect critical space assets
and resources
aligns perfectly with this policy. Starquest's
dedication to green financing reflects a global
shift towards sustainable investments, and ALDORIA
is proud to see space recognized as an environmental
priority.
The space environment, which is
essential for numerous critical functions on Earth,
including communication, navigation, and climate
change monitoring, requires safeguarding from the
detrimental effects of space debris and other
threats.
“We at Starquest are delighted
to lead this financing round and to bring our
support to an outstanding and disruptive team. They
are paving the way to many critical applications for
efficient climate monitoring, a critical issue we
are tackling with our Starquest Protect fund. We
feel extremely confident about the growth potential
of ALDORIA, an icon of the French deeptech acting
for a global future.” - Arnaud Delattre, President
at Starquest Capital
Svetoslava Georgieva, Chair of the EIC Fund Board,
said: “Recognising the increasing importance of
European leadership in the global space arena,
ALDORIA’s vision aligns with our commitment to
fortifying the region’s space safety efforts. With
proprietary sensors and a keen understanding of
market dynamics, ALDORIA is poised for sustained
success as a market leader in the evolving landscape
of Space Situational Awareness.”
This Serie A round is a
significant milestone for ALDORIA, underlining the
company's achievements. These include establishing a
global presence in over 17 countries through
strategic contracts and partnerships with prominent
space agencies like CNES and ESA, commercial
satellite operators such as Airbus Defence & Space,
and other key stakeholders including Astroscale and
Isar Aerospace.
With aerospace fundraising at
its lowest level in over a decade, ALDORIA’s value
proposition has shown to be attractive in a
demanding investor market. The successful closing of
this oversubscribed €10M equity round serves as a
testament to the confidence placed by the
investors. This is also the largest equity funding
round for an SSA company in Europe.
“We have been striving for half
a decade to make Earth orbits recognized as part of
our environment. More and more people in the space
community and beyond have become aware of the space
debris issue. We are very happy that orbital
environment protection is now supported
by green finance, and we are therefore particularly
proud of our partnership with Starquest Capital
through their Protect Article 9 fund, with the
continued support of our existing shareholder
Expansion Ventures, as well as several public
investors. “Romain Lucken, CEO of ALDORIA.
The number of active satellites
in low Earth orbit is expected to grow from nearly
9,000 today to 40,000 in 2030. The ramifications of
this increase are already noticeable. ALDORIA’s
orbital information system has generated 230,000
independent measurements on 5,000 objects and
anticipated 30M close approaches between resident
space objects in 2023.
Amid the growing insecurity
caused by the lack of space traffic rules, ALDORIA
is taking control back by advising operators on
real-time threats. ALDORIA stands at the forefront
of global innovation with its cutting-edge optical
system, renowned for its wide field of view capable
of detecting large amounts of small objects
including stealth satellites. The precision and
clarity offered by its patented optical systems
provide a competitive edge in capturing detailed
information about the space environment.
With 20+ customers and a unique
network of six optical surveillance stations on four
continents, Aldoria is now ready for its next
development stage. Besides expanding the network to
12 stations by 2025, one of the strategic objectives
is to develop and refine a multi-sensor approach to
address more customer use cases through data fusion.
Overall, ALDORIA is set to
offer a competitive European SSA solution to the
global market. The Series A funding will facilitate
the expansion of its presence, investments in local
talents, and contributions to the growth of the
European space ecosystem, in line with upcoming EU
space law.
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