Startup Varda has raised $250 million to produce drugs in space and beyond. What is the "trick" of this technology
Space manufacturing startup Varda Space has raised $250 million in a Series D round at a valuation of $1.6 billion.
Space manufacturing startup Varda Space has raised $250 million in a Series D round at a valuation of $1.6 billion.
According to Reuters, Varda is one of a handful of American companies building a fleet of unmanned space capsules that can function as orbital laboratories or production platforms for products in space.
In particular, it concerns the production of drugs: in the absence of gravity, convection currents and sedimentation, molecular crystals precipitate much more evenly and cleanly, so this allows the growth of crystal structures of proteins and active pharmaceutical ingredients with a precision that is impossible to achieve on Earth. As a result, drugs become more bioavailable and more stable during storage.
The $250 million funding round was led by Lux Capital and Natural Capital, bringing the total investment in Varda to $598 million since its founding in 2021 by former SpaceX engineer Will Bruy and Founders Fund partner Delian Asparuhov.
The company has launched six missions to orbit with its teardrop-shaped W-series capsule since 2023. All but the fourth mission have returned successfully from space.
The startup Varda has already booked 28 capsule launches from various suppliers from 2027 to 2029. The company’s main focus is on the pharmaceutical industry.
According to Bruy, about 70% of Varda’s client base next year will be government companies, with the rest coming from commercial pharmaceuticals.
About the size of a dishwasher, the company’s capsules can orbit the Earth for several days and then re-enter the atmosphere at speeds 25 times the speed of sound.
As dev.ua reported, SpaceX’s Starship entered orbit for the first time and launched Starlink satellites.
Meanwhile, Google’s Project Suncatcher, which aims to place large AI infrastructures in low Earth orbit, is preparing for a key event: the company is sending a miniature data center into space to test the operation of chips in harsh space conditions.
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