K2 Space co-founders Karan Kunjur and Neel Kunjur at the company's facility in Torrance, California.
Credit: Espacio K2
Los Angeles-based startup K2 Space has raised $50 million in new funding as the company works to build monster satellites to match the massive rockets coming to market.
Almost two years since its founding, K2 brothers and co-founders, CEO Karan Kunjur and CTO Neel Kunjur, hope to launch their first satellite on a demonstration mission later this year.
The company's latest fundraising was led by tech investor Brad Gerstner's Altimeter Capital and joined by Alpine Space Ventures, adding to the $8.5 million in seed funding it raised from investors including First Round Capital and Republic Capital. K2 declined to specify its valuation after the most recent round.
“This round is effectively designed for the demand we are seeing for the launch of Mega-class satellite constellations,” Karan Kunjur told CNBC.
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K2's Mega-class satellite bus (the physical structure of a spacecraft that provides power, motion, and more) is sized to fit both “heavy” and “super-heavy” rockets. Some of those rockets are currently in operation, such as SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets or United Launch Alliance's Vulcan, and some are expected to hit the market in the coming years, including SpaceX's Starship, New Glenn from Blue Origin and more.
A rendering of a K2 Space Mega satellite in space.
Credit: Espacio K2
The company advertises its Mega satellite for $15 million each and says they are capable of supporting up to a ton of payload each. At that size, K2 could hold 10 megasatellites on a Falcon 9 rocket.
“We have a fairly modular design, where customers can determine how much payload mass they want, how many satellites they want to launch and how much propellant they want to carry,” said Neel Kunjur, adding that “the intention is basically to give the customer a menu of options.” that you can adapt to the needs of your mission.
K2's upcoming demo mission aims to show numerous undisclosed customers that its Mega design works. In addition to talks with several “large commercial satellite operators,” Karan Kunjur noted that K2 has won about $6.5 million in Department of Defense contracts over the past eight months.
“There are different parts of the Department of Defense that are incredibly excited about the capability we can deliver at the constellation level,” Karan Kunjur said.
A slide from the K2 Space presentation deck.
Credit: Espacio K2
K2 currently has a 15,000-square-foot facility in Torrance, California, and 28 employees, many of whom, like Neel Kunjur, have years of prior experience at SpaceX.
The Kunjurs hope to use the fresh funds to add a 150,000-square-foot facility later this year and grow the company to more than 50 employees as it prepares to begin producing satellites.
“The goal is to really get into [the larger facility] by the end of the year so we can start shifting gears to mass production… to really make sure we're achieving the scale that our customers are asking for,” Karan Kunjur said.
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