On Wednesday, Brownsville, Texas “democratized space investment” startup Spaced Ventures announced the successful close of a pre-seed venture capital round earlier this month. Capital from the pre-seed round will support the company in its pre-launch phase, as it aims to become the first investment platform providing critical early-stage capital to space startups with few alternatives for getting their businesses off the ground.
Besides its space crowdfunding platform–mission command for what it hopes will become the world’s largest community of space investors–the company has also developed SpacedBase, a data and analytics tool that provides insights into the space industry to its members.
The pre-seed round was led by New York-based single family office Helios Capital, which focuses primarily on emerging technologies, and Denver-based space and biotech VC fund Morgan Brook Capital, whose managing partner Dylan Taylor–also the CEO of Voyager Space Holdings–is a well-known space startup investor. An official announcement from the city of Brownsville, Texas on Wednesday hailed Taylor for recognizing the strategic value of Spaced Ventures in leading the funding round.
“We saw a unique opportunity to invest in a company that identified a gap in capital formation for space and created innovative tools to fill it. We believe that Spaced Ventures will be a key part of the capital formation and an important partner to other institutional investors.”
“Traditional capital formation in the nascent space industry is starting to take place but early stage funding is still difficult to secure,” said J. Brant Arseneau, founder of Spaced Ventures. “Our mission is to address this need by connecting new public capital to early stage space companies, igniting innovation, and democratizing private investing.”
High times for Starbase
In November 2020, Spaced Ventures reached a strategic agreement with the city of Brownsville–including an economic development grant of $250,000 to develop the local space-based economy. The company is investment operations center in collaboration with the City of Brownsville as part of its commitment to build a NewSpace ecosystem.
Its planned pivot to a space-based economy is garnering support from Spaced Ventures…and other idiosyncratic founders. Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced late last month that he planned to donate $30 million to Brownsville and its local school system, as part of an appeal to get space industry engineers and knowledge workers to relocate there. Last month, he also reportedly floated a name-change for the Texas town, from Brownsville to Starbase, in a tweet.
“The transition of the space industry from a government funded to a privately funded sector will take time. Capital formation in emerging markets is not fully formed and early stage capital is often scarce,” said J. Brant Arseneau, founder and Burnett’s partner, while commenting on the challenges of developing capital markets. “Our mission is to address this need by connecting new public capital to early stage space companies, igniting innovation and helping local space economies like Brownsville grow.”
“The City of Brownsville is excited about this partnership with Spaced Ventures and focused on developing the NewSpace Economy in Brownsville. With the acceleration of SpaceX launch activities, and the continued enthusiasm that they bring to our community, we believe that the time is now to forge strategic partnerships to further attract the NewSpace Sector to Brownsville. It’s a great time to be in Brownsville and the world is taking notice,” said Trey Mendez, Brownsville Mayor.
“Brownsville is a unique city, actively supporting early-stage Space companies by leveraging its talent, experience and location,” stated Mr. Burnett. “Our plan is to hire a team of analysts and operations specialists in the Brownsville area, to further develop and improve our investment processes. We look forward to building a new Space economy together.”
“This is just the beginning,” according to Brownsville Mayor Trey Mendez. “This is exciting news for Brownsville and the NewSpace ecosystem we are building in our city. The past two years has brought significant Space related investment and interest in our community. We are thrilled to have Spaced Ventures in Brownsville and are looking forward to many more great announcements in the future. Things will only get better from here.”
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