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Lunar Outpost Announces $12 Million Seed Investment, to Scale Mobility Technology Enabling Commercial Lunar AdvancementLunar Outpost, a global leader in commercial planetary mobility, today announced a $12 million seed funding round led by Explorer 1 Fund with participation from Promus Ventures, Space Capital, Type One Ventures and Cathexis Ventures. The capital will be used to launch a new class of autonomous lunar rovers, deploy its robotics in additional environments, and invest in new technologies to improve its existing platforms. Explorer 1 Fund's Daniel Kleinman and Promus Ventures Partner Gareth Keane also joined Lunar Outpost's Board of Directors. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220524005399/en/ AJ Gemer, CTO; Justin Cyrus, CEO; NASA Administrator Sen Bill Nelson; Dr. Forrest Meyen, CSO; Julian Cyrus, COO (Photo: Business Wire) With the promise of decades of safe travel to the Moon and the rise of commercialized space, society looks to expand both human and robotic operations into the solar system, igniting a global demand for an extended lunar presence. Countries are racing to set up lunar bases to continue the critical research and leverage the Moon's resources to establish a new paradigm of value generation in space. Lunar Outpost is developing and implementing technology that enables a sustainable presence in cislunar space - the only company with two fully funded commercial rover missions to the Moon. "We're living at a time where dependable and repeatable commercial access to the lunar surface with lunar landers is a reality. Lunar Outpost is sprinting alongside leading commercial, government, and research organizations towards the Moon, soon to be one of the few organizations operating systems on three planetary bodies," said Lunar Outpost founder and CEO Justin Cyrus. "Prior to this investment, we were working with one round of angel funding - practically boot-strapped - yet the team contracted twolunar missions and has seen 6X growth in revenue compared to last year. Our growth and today's funding news showcases the confidence from our customers and investors that Lunar Outpost is the global leader in commercial planetary robotics." Lunar Outpost's technologies have both Earth and space applications, providing "mobility as a service" on the Moon to companies, researchers, governments, and universities. Its modular autonomous rovers and service-based business model drastically lower the cost to explore space, build interplanetary infrastructure, and harvest the vast resources of space. Current offerings include:
"We are at a key inflection point in the space economy. With launch costs continuing to decrease, there is an increase in international commercial space activity, opening up opportunities to invest in growing categories like lunar infrastructure," said Daniel Kleinmann of Explorer 1 Fund. "The research and data Lunar Outpost's rovers provide will act as an important catalyst for building out this infrastructure. This investment is one of our firm's largest to date and Lunar Outpost will now be the most highly financed U.S. startup focused on cislunar space. The groundwork their team is doing - collecting samples of Lunar Regolith - is essential as we look toward utilizing the resources the Moon has to offer." The Moon is now a marketplace. According to the SpaceTech Industry 2021 report, there are more than 10,000 private space tech companies in the U.S. These companies are eager to monetize and benefit from the abundant, usable lunar resources - many not-yet-discovered - including building materials, fuel, water and oxygen. Production of small lunar landers has exponentially increased over the last few years. According to the Moon Market Analysis, 70 commercial missions are scheduled within the next decade, with at least 14 lunar landings planned in the next three years. This deluge of small lunar landers is driven by significant investment from NASA through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program (CLPS). As part of the program, Lunar Outpost was awarded the first-ever contract from NASA for the collection and commercialization of Lunar Regolith from the lunar surface. "As the U.S. government deepens support for commercial space activity, Lunar Outpost has emerged as a leader in advancing the lunar economy. The company competes for lunar missions alongside companies both large and small; with its rovers and rover platforms winning bids at a remarkable rate," said Promus Ventures Partner Gareth Keane. "We've been following Lunar for years and have been incredibly impressed by how they have used their terrestrial success as a springboard to finance and advance their technology to support lunar ambitions and gain attention and respect from NASA." Lunar Outpost's management team assembles top talent from leading organizations and institutions in the space arena. Over the next year, the company plans to take advantage of a growing space ecosystem by rapidly expanding its manufacturing and engineering facilities in the greater Denver area, lunar test facilities, and overseas locations.
About Lunar Outpost
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View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220524005399/en/ |