The fast growth of the commercial space industry in recent years has prompted early-stage investors to examine entirely different sorts of businesses than they did when space entrepreneurs were still a novelty. The availability of more affordable space travel, the maturation of ground infrastructure, and improvements in the accessibility and usability of earth observation data have all combined to position entirely new breeds of space-related ventures as prime candidates for high-risk, high-reward investment. “Being There When Stars Form,” a panel discussion with three early-stage investors, held at TC Sessions:
- Space Capital’s founder and managing partner, Chad Anderson
- Assembly Ventures co-founder and collaborate Jessica Robinson
- Techstars managing director Jonathan Fentzke
Given the theme, we discussed SPACs as well as sectors that are piqueing the interest of investors interested in new and developing space-related technology enterprises, Infrastructure, such as long-term on-orbit operations and collision avoidance, as well as applications being built using existing operational in-space assets, was something that everyone was interested in. Highlights from our talk may be seen below, or scroll down to see a video of the complete conversation.
The last ten years have been revolutionary for space; we have gone from a few defense contractors and a few monolithic satellites in orbit to suddenly 1,600 space firms participating, generating many cash and launching many satellites.
As they roll out their beta version of Starlink and prepare to go into commercial production next year, SpaceX and Starlink have launched a number of satellites this year. In addition, the number of satellites deployed increased dramatically from 2020 to 2021. Therefore, there is a lot more commercial activity in space, and there is undoubtedly a lot more garbage in orbit. As a result, getting our heads around that is a top priority for both governments and businesses.
The things that excite us the most, whether on Earth or in space, are undoubtedly data-related. I am sure we will discuss it a lot today. Given that you do not want to downlink stuff, you do not have to; I believe the ongoing prospects and uses of AI and machine learning are particularly pertinent here. In addition, I believe robotics is another topic that translates well for us as investors, albeit there are clearly issues in the space environment.
