Our newly published Q1 21 SpaceTech Index highlights that the recent surge in VC investment into SpaceTech shows no sign of slowing down. 

For the third consecutive quarter, investment levels topped $2.5bn, with a record $8.7bn having been invested in the preceding 12 months. This represents a 95% increase relative to the prior year - which given the Covid-realted macro-economic headwinds the wider world has faced is testimony to SpaceTech's enduring attraction to VCs.

Furthermore, as our Index notes, Space Tech is now also increasingly attracting interest from public market investors. 11 space-related SPACs have been announced in recent months that collectively represent $7.2bn in anticipated transaction value (as and when they complete their SPAC mergers). 

The additional firepower from public market investors is well attuned to both the capital needs and potential scale of opportunities represented by Space Tech businesses. To place this in context; in the whole of 2020 some $7.7bn in private capital was committed to c.220 SpaceTech companies. The 11 announced space-related SPACs by themselves account for nearly the same level of funding.

We believe that the sustained growth in VC financing coupled to the more recent advent of public market appetite could in time prove to be a watershed moment for the SpaceTech market. With both private and public market investors seemingly now educated on the $trillion potential of the SpaceTech investment market, the pathway for accessing the capital required to deliver on the out-of-this-world ambitions of SpaceTech companies has never been clearer. Long may this continue!