K2 Space fetches $500M for its move to mass production
A K2 Space Gravitas satellite undergoing final integration before its March 2026 flight. K2 Space photo.
By
Ross Wilkers
The four-year-old large satellite maker is pushing to build as many as 100 of them per year, some of which are contracted to be a part of the Golden Dome missile defense system.
K2 Space, a maker of large satellites for communications and defense usage, has collected $500 million in Series D capital to expand its workforce and manufacturing capacity for fulfilling orders.
When K2 announced its $250 million Series C in December, the company touted a backlog of $500 million in signed government and commercial contracts. The Series D round announced Thursday puts that figure at $1 billion as K2 pushes to build as many as 100 satellites per year.
Kleiner Perkins and ICONIQ led the Series D round, which pushes K2’s touted valuation to $6.8 billion. Additional participants included CapitalG, Lightspeed, Altimeter, Spark Capital, Sands Capital, ARK Invest, T. Rowe Price Associates and other existing investors.
Founded in 2022, K2 is now moving from demonstrations of its satellites to efforts in manufacturing them in larger quantities for longer-term programs in both government and commercial markets.
“Our supply chain is 85 percent vertically integrated, which allows us to build our large satellites quickly and at low cost,” K2 co-founder and chief executive Karan Kunjur said in a release.
The company is at work in developing its Giga-class satellite for introduction in the second half of 2028. Giga will be positioned as “the foundational platform for deploying massive amounts of compute on orbit,” added Neel Kunjur, co-founder and chief technology officer.
In essence, K2 sees Giga as core to making space-based data centers a reality.
K2 is also working toward its Trinity mission in the second quarter of 2027, when the company plans to launch multiple satellites. Anduril is acquiring K2’s satellites as part of a space-based interceptor contract for Golden Dome, the future nationwide missile defense system.
K2 is also the bus provider for Space Force’s Protected Tactical Satcom-Global program, which uses commercial satellites in geostationary orbit to provide operators jam-resistant tactical communications. This is K2’s first program of record.
Below is a CNBC interview with Kunjur posted Thursday.