Propulsion tech maker fetches $13M from Lockheed's venture arm, other investors
An A110 thruster hot-firing. Courtesy of Agile.
By
Ross Wilkers
Agile Space Industries is looking to scale up its production operations and test infrastructure.
Agile Space Industries, a developer of thrusters and rocket engines for in-space propulsion, has completed a seed funding round that fetched $13 million from investors that include Lockheed Martin's venture capital organization.
Toward the end of this calendar year, Agile plans to start a Series A investment round with an eye toward scaling up its production operations. The "Seed-2" round announced Friday is focused on efforts to raise the capacity of Agile's chemical propulsion test infrastructure and raises the amount of capital raised so far to $18 million.
Other participants in the round included Caruso Ventures, the Greater Colorado Venture Fund, CORI Innovation Fund and Greenline Ventures.
Agile was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Durango, Colorado with another major presence in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. The company's rocket thrusters rely on chemical propulsion techniques to power launch vehicles and other spacecraft.
In April, Agile announced its A110 thruster as having qualified for commercial lunar missions and also able to support the return of humans to the Moon under the NASA Artemis program. Agile is now building dozens of flight units for use by multiple customers to land on the Moon.
“Since 2020, revenues have grown more than 70% annually as we emerged as the global leader of in-house metal additive manufacturing and hypergolic propulsion test capabilities," Agile's chief executive Chris Pearson said in a release. "Our customers benefit from our novel designs that push performance while dramatically reducing development and qualification lead-times."
For Lockheed Martin Ventures, power and propulsion represent one of the organization's 12 major focus areas of investment in companies that are developing new technologies in business areas and markets within the larger corporation's strategy.
“Lockheed Martin is at the forefront of technological advancement and innovation in today’s evolving space economy,” said Chris Moran, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Ventures “Our investment in Agile Space Industries underscores our commitment to the development o breakthrough technologies that bring us closer to discovering more of space.”