Isar Aerospace receives € 150 million and becomes a unicorn

Isar Aero­space, the space company that emer­ged from the Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Munich (TUM), has achie­ved a company valua­tion of over one billion dollars and thus unicorn status. This brings the number of TUM Unicorns to 22. Isar Aero­space has deve­lo­ped and built its own commer­cial rocket tech­no­logy and will trans­port small and medium-sized satel­li­tes into space in the future. The foun­ding of the start-up by three gradua­tes was inten­si­vely supported at TUM. 

Dozens of new tech­no­lo­gies require more and more satel­li­tes for data trans­mis­sion — whether for commu­ni­ca­tion networks, auto­no­mous driving or digi­tal agri­cul­ture. To this end, compa­nies want to launch entire swarms of satel­li­tes into space. These satel­li­tes are compa­ra­tively small and are desi­gned to move in low earth orbits. Isar Aero­space wants to exploit this econo­mic poten­tial. The company, which recei­ved the TUM Presi­den­tial Entre­pre­neur­ship Award in 2023, comple­ted its first test flight with a 28-metre-high launch vehicle from the Norwe­gian space­port Andøya in March 2025. 

“We are meeting the growing global demand for satel­lite laun­ches and provi­ding markets and govern­ments with inde­pen­dent and flexi­ble access to space. This invest­ment confirms the strong confi­dence of global markets in our efforts to build a new leader in the space sector.”

The capi­tal is to flow into the expan­sion of launch capa­ci­ties and the series produc­tion of launch vehic­les near Munich. The aim is to make Euro­pe’s access to space tech­no­lo­gi­cally inde­pen­dent and cost-effi­ci­ent. ‑The entry of Eldridge Indus­tries also marks a turning point in the finan­cing stra­tegy — Isar Aero­space had previously relied on Euro­pean inves­tors — and thus streng­thens the company’s inter­na­tio­nal orientation. 

Isar Aero­space was foun­ded in 2018 by Daniel Metz­ler, Josef Fleisch­mann and Markus Brandl. The startup deve­lops and builds laun­chers for small and medium-sized satel­li­tes and satel­lite constel­la­ti­ons. Accor­ding to the company, it now employs more than 400 people from over 50 nati­ons at five inter­na­tio­nal locations. 

About Eldridge

Eldridge is an asset manage­ment and insu­rance holding company with over $70 billion in assets under manage­ment, consis­ting of two divi­si­ons: Eldridge Capi­tal Manage­ment and Eldridge Wealth Solutions.

Eldridge Capi­tal Manage­ment, through its subsi­dia­ries, focu­ses on four invest­ment stra­te­gies — diver­si­fied credit, GP solu­ti­ons, real estate credit, and sports and entertainment.

Eldridge Wealth Solu­ti­ons, is a plat­form for insu­rance and pension solu­ti­ons, consis­ting of the insu­rance compa­nies of Eldridge.