Seraphim closes $100m venture fund for spacetech: ‘Long-term benefits for our planet’

British listed venture capital firm Seraphim has closed its latest fund at $100m as it looks to back startups building everything from medical labs in orbit to satellites that track carbon removal.

New LPs in the fund include the British Business Bank (BBB), The National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), and corporate backers such as Saudi Arabia-based Arabsat. They join existing investors including European satellite firm Eutelsat, Japanese IT company NEC, and SKY Perfect JSAT, a Japanese satellite communications company.

Mark Boggett, CEO of Seraphim Space, said the close would allow the firm to keep backing “breakthrough innovations” that will deliver “long-term benefits for our planet over the coming decade and beyond.”

World’s only listed spacetech investor

Launched in 2017, Seraphim went public on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in 2021 – a rare move for a VC firm.

“Seraphim Space Investment Trust is offering for the first time public market investors the opportunity to get diversified exposure to the private companies leading this exciting investment area,” Boggett said at the time of the IPO, which raised around £178m (€204m) for the firm.

The listed fund has backed 17 startups to date, including Finland-headquartered satellite unicorn ICEYE, which makes up over 30% of Seraphim’s assets under management (AUM). Other companies in the portfolio include Renoster, which uses satellites to monitor carbon removals, and LambdaVision, which looks to manufacture artificial retinas in low-Earth orbit.

Climate impact?

In a press statement, Seraphim said it saw demand for spacetech solutions for a number of different applications, including traditional space, defence, life sciences, and climate resilience.

“Globally competitive space companies focused on data intelligence and climate resilience are not only possible, but highly investable,” Maureen Haverty, investment principal at Seraphim Space, previously told Impact Loop.

Despite the rhetoric, space’s climate impact can be a double-edged sword. While certain space-based technologies are crucial for climate monitoring – and future ones, such as space-based solar, could provide clean power – the space industry remains a significant emitter of greenhouse gases.