SpaceTech Sector Newsletter - January 2024

Seraphim Space Investment Trust PLC

05 February 2024

 

SERAPHIM SPACE INVESTMENT TRUST PLC
(the "Company" or "SSIT")

SpaceTech Sector Newsletter - January 2024

Seraphim Space Investment Trust plc (LSE: SSIT), the world's first listed SpaceTech investment company, publishes its monthly RNS Reach newsletter to provide updates, based on publicly available information, on the Company's portfolio investments, its Manager (Seraphim Space Manager LLP (the "Manager" or "Seraphim Space")) and the wider SpaceTech market. The following newsletter covers January 2024. 

Media Coverage

SSIT featured in Patrick Hosking's article for The Times - 'It's a buy'

Investors are starting to understand the way satellite-gathered information is crucial not just for assessing climate change and weather information but geopolitically, too. Several of SSIT's investments, including one of its biggest, HawkEye 360, serve the defence industry. [Read more]

SSIT featured in David Stevenson's Adventurous Investor Column for the Financial Times - 'My left-field investment ideas for 2024'

"I've grown more optimistic about Seraphim Space investment trust which has been on the receiving end of some negative comment - including from me - over its failure to drop its valuations over the past few years. It has always maintained that the space market is an exception and that valuations are holding up. Recent transactions suggest it might be right." [Read more]

SSIT featured in Investors Chronicle - 'The shares and funds brokers are backing for 2024'

Analysts pointed to trusts such as NB Private Equity, HarbourVest Global Private Equity and Seraphim Space. [Read more]

SSIT Portfolio Update

AST SpaceMobile receives strategic investment from AT&T, Google and Vodafone

AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ: ASTS), the company building the first and only space-based cellular broadband network accessible directly by everyday smartphones, announced a strategic investment from AT&T, Google and Vodafone and aggregate new financing of up to $206.5m in gross proceeds. Google and AT&T have joined a $155m strategic investment in AST SpaceMobile to help fund its direct-to-smartphone connectivity constellation. [Read more]

D-Orbit raises $110m to reach new heights in space logistics services

D-Orbit, an Italian startup that provides an array of logistics services for companies operating satellites and other services in space, has raised €100m ($110m) in a Series C round of equity funding. The funding round was led by one of Japan's leading industrial groups, Marubeni Corporation, with Avantgarde (a regular investor in the space industry) and a range of existing investors (including SSIT) also participating. [Read more]

NASA bumps up funding for Voyager Space Station

NASA has made an additional award of $57.5m from its Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) program to the Voyager Space-led Starlab consortium. The additional funding will be used to fund new technical milestones and follows the decision of Northrop Grumman to drop out of its own CLD initiative in favour of joining forces with Voyager Space to collaborate on Starlab. [Read more]

Voyager Space and Airbus joint venture Starlab sign a deal with SpaceX to launch into orbit on the company's Starship rocket

Private station Starlab will fly on a Starship rocket later this decade to get to orbit. Starlab, being built by Voyager Space and Airbus through a joint venture, alongside partners including Northrop Grumman and Hilton, is planned to launch on a single mission of SpaceX's mammoth rocket. Starlab represents one of the earliest commercial customers to order a Starship launch from SpaceX. [Read more]

Spire Global launches four satellites on Rocket Lab's Electron for NorthStar Earth & Space

Spire Global (NYSE: SPIR), a renowned global provider of space-based data, analytics and space services, announced an exciting new mission. Leveraging its Space as a Service model, Spire has launched four satellites dedicated to Space Situational Awareness (SSA) on behalf of its customer NorthStar Earth & Space. These satellites will be used to track space debris, with the aim of improving the sustainability of space.[Read more]

SpaceTech Sector News

Seraphim Space releases SpaceTech VC Index Q4 2023

Seraphim Space revealed that venture capital investment in the space sector remained resilient despite economic uncertainty. While general venture capital investment saw a 35% drop in investment between 2022 and 2023, SpaceTech substantially outperformed. Despite a slow start to 2023, the year culminated with a total annual investment of $6.8bn, in line with 2022 investment levels. Q4 was the most active quarter of the year, with $2bn invested across 127 deals, marking the highest number of recorded deals in a single quarter. These transactions signify an all-time high in activity for both late-stage investing, with the resurgence of growth rounds, and early-stage. [Read more]

Seraphim Space releases SpaceTech Predictions for 2024

Huge technological developments have continued with new sectors developing solutions to help tackle some of humanity's greatest problems on Earth. Just as low-cost launch has reshaped the space sector over the last decade, Seraphim Space anticipates that the advent of low cost, frequent return to Earth capabilities will have a similar impact over the next decade. Advancements in sectors such as life sciences and material sciences are a potential goldmine, with new classes of drugs and novel materials developed in space holding transformational potential in verticals like pharmaceuticals, telecoms and microelectronics. The acceleration in these areas witnessed in 2023 has laid the groundwork for some exciting developments expected to be seen in 2024. [Read more]

Japan now the 5^th country to successfully land on the moon

Japan joined an elite club when it landed an unmanned probe on the moon. The pinpoint landing of the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) was a huge boost for the confidence and credibility of the country's space program, a project with important implications for Japan's economy and national security. [Read more]

Vulcan rocket's debut brings long- awaited potential challenge to SpaceX dominance

A Boeing-Lockheed joint venture's launch of a new Vulcan rocket inaugurated a potentially formidable rival to SpaceX, a milestone long sought by the US government as it seeks to diversify launch suppliers for its satellites. Boeing and Lockheed Martin's United Launch Alliance sent Vulcan into space for the first time, a first step toward reclaiming market share from SpaceX, whose reusable Falcon 9 rocket for years has been the main option for countries to get their satellites into space. The payload, a privately funded moon lander, will not finish its mission because of technical issues suffered following its launch, but the Vulcan rocket launch itself was deemed a success. [Read more]

SpaceX deploys direct to cell Starlink satellites

SpaceX launched its first batch of Starlink satellites with the embedded capability to connect directly with phones on the ground. T-Mobile, the company's partner in connectivity, is signed on to enable the service within the US as early as this year. Satellites equipped with this technology mimic cell towers. This can enable users on the ground to send texts and make calls even when they are in remote locations not covered by terrestrial towers. [Read more]

Seraphim Space Mission 13 applications are open

The Seraphim Space Accelerator is once again looking for the 'best of breed' high-growth technology companies in the space industry. This 13-week programme, which is backed by leading space corporates and agencies, is the original dedicated programme for Seed and Pre-Series A SpaceTech startups. [Apply]

Media, Podcasts and Conferences

Media

·           Sky News: Seraphim Space CEO Mark Boggett appeared on Sky News. Mark was asked to comment on the Japan moon landing and the growing importance of commercial capital to help government and global space agencies achieve more with their budgets. [Watch]

·           Bloomberg UK Politics: Seraphim Space CIO James Bruegger was interviewed by the Bloomberg UK Politics podcast 'Low Orbit: Why the UK's Galactic Ambitions Are Struggling' explaining what the space sector wants from the UK government in 2024. [Watch]

Video webinars

·           The Seraphim Space Index Q4 23 explained: Seraphim Space's Lucas Bishop, Zainab Qasim and Leah Martin discuss the previous quarter's funding and acquisition activity across the space industry. Find out all about current trends, M&A activity, deals, geographic analysis and all all-stage data and more. [Watch]

·           The Seraphim SpaceTech Predictions 2024: Seraphim Space investors Dr Maureen Haverty and Lucas Bishop discuss their predictions for the industry in 2024 and look back over what was a bumpy 2023 for many after the record year that was 2022. Despite this, the space sector continues to grow at an unprecedented rate due to the critical nature of technology and insight it provides, helping to mitigate against global challenges such as climate, security and sustainability. [Watch]

Conferences

·           SmallSat Symposium: Seraphim Space Investment VP Lewis Jones is speaking on 6 February 2023 in Silicon Valley. [Details]

·           Global Space and Technology Convention: Seraphim Space CEO Mark Boggett is speaking on 15 February 2023 in Singapore. [Details]

·           Web Summit Qatar: Seraphim Space CEO Mark Boggett is speaking on 26 February in Doha, Qatar. [Details]

Find out where to meet and hear from Seraphim Space's team by following its social media, LinkedIn / Twitter.

Sign up to receive Seraphim Space's monthly newsletter directly to your inbox. [Sign up]

Neither the Company's website nor the content of any website accessible from hyperlinks in it or in this newsletter (or any other website) is (or is deemed to be) incorporated into, or forms (or is deemed to form) part of, this newsletter.

- Ends -

Media Enquiries

Seraphim Space Manager LLP (via SEC Newgate)
Mark Boggett, CEO / James Bruegger, CIO / Rob Desborough
SEC Newgate (Communications advisers)	[e-mail]
Emma Kane / Clotilde Gros / George Esmond	[phone]
Deutsche Numis
Mark Hankinson / Gavin Deane / Neil Coleman	[phone]
J.P. Morgan Cazenove
William Simmonds / Jérémie Birnbaum / Rupert Budge	[phone]
Ocorian Administration (UK) Limited	[e-mail]
Lorna Zimny	[phone]

Notes to Editors

About Seraphim Space Investment Trust plc

Seraphim Space Investment Trust plc (the "Company") is the world's first listed fund focused on SpaceTech. The Company seeks exposure predominantly to early and growth stage private financed SpaceTech businesses that have the potential to dominate globally and that are sector leaders with first mover advantages in areas such as climate, communications, mobility and cyber security.

The Company is listed on the Premium Segment of the London Stock Exchange.

Further information is available at: https://investors.seraphim.vc.

About Seraphim Space Manager LLP

Seraphim Space Manager LLP ("Seraphim Space" or the "Manager") is based in the UK and manages Seraphim Space Investment Trust plc.

Further information is available at www.seraphim.vc.

About Seraphim Space Camp Accelerator Ltd

Seraphim Space Camp Accelerator Ltd, an affiliate of Seraphim Space Manager LLP based in the UK, established the Seraphim Space Accelerator in 2018 and has developed it to become the world-leading VC-led accelerator with a focus on SpaceTech. The accelerator programme brings in-depth industry expertise to get Seed and Pre-Series A SpaceTech companies 'investment ready' while facilitating relationships with some of the world's leading Space corporates and agencies.

Further information is available at www.seraphim.vc.

About Generation Space LLC

Generation Space LLC is the US subsidiary of Seraphim Space Manager LLP and is responsible for its US activities. Generation Space LLC is an affiliate of Seraphim Space Camp Accelerator Ltd and is responsible for delivery of the US Generation Space Accelerator.

Further information is available at www.generation.space.

 

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