Reaching fleet scale in 2025 as we cross $500M of lifetime bookings

In January 2017, we started Loft to make it simple for organizations to deploy and operate missions in space. Exactly 8 years later, we are thrilled to announce that the mission continues with our $170M Series C, led by Tikehau Capital with Axial Partners as a co-lead, and joined by Bpifrance, Foundation Capital, Temasek, and Uncork Capital.

Within the company, we talk about 2025 as the year we reach fleet scale. With our current manifest alone, we will soon operate one of the largest heterogenous satellite fleets in Low Earth Orbit. We have operations on three continents that enable us to serve a truly global customer base. This round gives us the fuel to meet this challenge and build a durable, trusted commercial space company.

Where we started

Today, commercial space is red hot. Demand for commercial space solutions is driven by a few megatrends:

• the need to understand the Earth’s changing climate
• national need for security and sovereignty across all governments
• the world’s insatiable demand for connectivity and data

While SpaceX has mostly solved the launch side of the industry, the satellite side is still plagued by schedule problems. In the space supply chain, vendor schedules are typically more suggestion than commitment. As satellites are typically designed as custom one-offs, it takes years to design, build, test, and launch a satellite mission.

We started Loft to flip this script.

We saw that most customers in the space industry valued getting to space quickly over having every single one of their mission requirements met. These customers don’t need an exquisite point design for a satellite. They need space infrastructure that can fly any mission type rapidly and reliably.

Loft has spent the past 8 years developing and productizing the building blocks of this Infrastructure, anchored around:

1. Internal Developments

• Hub, a modular and universal payload adapter
• Cockpit, flexible mission operations software for hybrid satellite fleet and constellations at scale.

2. A stable of standard mission elements where we work with established providers, including satellite buses in different classes, ground stations across the world, providers of real-time data relay in GEO, and various cloud providers.

We’ve also honed the internal tooling, test infrastructure, and process expertise that is essential to delivering a satellite to space.

As an infrastructure company, we like to draw parallels between Loft and the cloud computing industry.

The miracle of the cloud is that a company can run its entire software stack without any insight into the cloud’s underlying infrastructure (data center, servers, networking). As the cloud enables developers to focus on applications not servers, Loft enables our customers to focus on their mission, not the satellite program.

Our core products, the Hub and Cockpit, are hardware and software abstractions that de-couple the customer’s payload – the mission – from the underlying satellite. This means that Loft does not need to design a satellite for a customer’s mission, we simply configure our satellite platform for whatever the customer needs.

Productization means that Loft’s satellites are not 100% optimized for each customer’s mission. While this may violate traditional aerospace orthodoxy, we embrace it. It means that we are prioritizing speed to orbit, schedule predictability, simplicity, and reliability through heritage rather than absolute performance.

Where we’ve been

Back in 2021, we raised a $130M Series B. Since then the Loft team has flat out executed, which has enabled us to raise an incredible Series C. We have:

• Sold out over 30 satellites, representing $500M in lifetime bookings with customers such as NASA, Microsoft, BAE Systems, the US Space Force, The French Space Agency (CNES), the European Space Agency, EarthDaily, Helsing, Eutelsat and many more
• Deployed tens of missions across 5 satellites launched
• Continued to double revenue over multiple years
• Established Loft Federal, which is launching its first satellites for the Space Development Agency in 2025 and is fully set up to perform on classified programs
  Established a $100M+ Joint Venture in the UAE with Marlan Space, where we are currently building out a 50,000 sq foot facility. We are under contract to provide satellites to the JV and plan to begin launches of JV-built satellites in 2026
• Launched YAM-6, the world’s first satellite dedicated to running AI in space
• Opened our flagship Integration and Test Center in Golden, CO, where we now have over tens of satellites “on the shelf”, ready well in advance of when the customer payloads are delivered
• Continued to build an incredible team across our offices in SF, Golden, Toulouse, and Abu Dhabi with a commitment to a high bar of people who are smart, kind, and care deeply

We achieved over $500M of bookings on only $160M of capital raised prior to this Series C. In an industry known for its capital intensity, we are extra proud of our capital efficiency.

Where we’re going

At Loft we think of our vision in two horizons. Horizon 1 is the here and now, the core of our business today. Horizon 2 is our future opportunity to transform the space industry.

Horizon 1: Simple, rapid, and reliable deployments of our customers’ physical missions.

This is our primary business today, and will continue to be going forward.

Today, we are at an inflection point, where we are scaling from launching a handful of satellites per year to 10+. Our 2025 manifest features multiple constellations including EarthDaily and the Space Development Agency, as well as several of our hallmark rideshare programs.

Loft’s primary focus in 2025 is to launch this manifest and successfully deploy our customers’ missions.

Beyond 2025, we will continue to be even more of a go-to space infrastructure provider for customers who want fast, simple, and reliable missions.

Horizon 2: Providing real-time insights directly from space

In Horizon 1 we are taking on a large, existing market with a fresh value proposition. In Horizon 2 we are building a new market.

Today, satellites are used in slow motion. A human tasks a satellite, data is collected, and that data is downlinked and routed back to the customer. Another human uses that data to make a decision or conduct some analysis.

Very few satellites are used to detect and monitor events in real-time. We believe there is massive, untapped potential in utilizing satellites for tactical purposes. To do so, our satellites have to become smarter and more rapidly accessible.

In Horizon 2, we are launching satellites with not only high-value sensors but also with compute (GPUs, CPUs, and FPGAs) and always-on connectivity via inter-satellite link. We have developed the framework that supports the execution of customer-provided AI apps, aka Virtual Missions, onboard Loft satellites.

While lots of companies are talking about running AI in space, very few are actually doing it. Loft is one of those few. Today, we are running virtual missions on YAM-6 every day for partners and customers such as Helsing, Microsoft, Agenium, NTT, and many others.

With this round of funding, we will increase our focus on Horizon 2 by growing our ecosystem of AI application partners and making it seamless and eventually self-serve for anyone to deploy and run AI apps on Loft’s infrastructure.

Some Thanks

First off, to our employees: building this company with you all has been the honor of our lives. Our culture has been an 8 year experiment in combining relentlessness and kindness, aerospace and software, and many nationalities across offices on three continents. Despite the long hard days in the trenches – which at a space company is basically every day – we have built a real community at Loft where we push each other to do better while also having each other’s backs.

To the incredible new investors in this round: Tikehau Capital, Axial Partners, Temasek, Supernova, Tribeca Venture Partners, Starburst VC, Arkenstone Partners, and GSBackers.

To our loyal existing investors, many of who have invested across multiple rounds: Uncork Capital, Foundation Capital, Bpifrance, Ubiquity VC, Heroic VC, Timber Grove Ventures, Modern Venture Partners, Swell VC, CEAS, Woori Ventures, and Gore Creek.

A very deep heartfelt special thanks to a few key relationships forged over the years that have shaped the company’s trajectory through many trying times: Steve Vassallo (Foundation Capital), Jeff Clavier (Uncork Capital), Adrien Mueller (Bpifrance), and Sunil Nagaraj (Ubiquity VC). A special thanks to Dan Fleischmann and Jeff Safferman at Timber Grove Ventures for your unyielding support since Day 1.

And finally, to our customers: we cherish the trust and faith you have placed in Loft. We will continue to go above and beyond for you, make space simpler for you, and wear your shoes.

Building space infrastructure is our life’s work. We’re in it for the long haul. Now, back to work!

– Pierre-Damien and Alex