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Week in Space Data, every Friday.
SpaceNexus quarterly space funding edition
Space funding, Q2 2026
$3.42B of private funding went into space companies in Q2 2026, across 44 closed rounds (36 with a disclosed amount). IPOs, debt, grants and other capital are counted separately below, never in the total.
$3.4B of private funding went into space companies in Q2 2026 across 44 closed rounds (36 with a disclosed amount), +8.7% vs Q1 2026; largest True Anomaly $600.0M (Series D).
Source: SpaceNexus quarterly space funding edition, Q2 2026
April 1, 2026 to June 30, 2026. Frozen September 29, 2026, published by the editor.
$3.15B across 33 rounds, same rule, Q1 2026 as it stood at this edition's freeze on 2026-09-29 (it has no frozen edition); live record today $3.71B across 74 rounds
Stated but not added: Q2 2026 holds back 6 rounds stated only as a floor or an approximation, about $541.9M as stated (largest: Apex, USD 200,000,000; Spacety, CNY 1,300,000,000; Turion Space, USD 75,000,000). These figures are in no SpaceNexus total; each such round counts as a round with no dollar figure until a source gives an exact one.
Corrections
October 5, 2026: Corrected 2026-10-05: BlackSky's $150 million of at-the-market share sales took place during Q2 2026 (its Q2 results: "During the quarter, the Company raised $150 million"), so the offering is listed beside the Q2 total (it had been dated August, in Q3). Offerings by listed companies are never in the total, so the Q2 figure does not change. (replaced $3.34B across 46 rounds; now $3.34B across 46)
October 7, 2026: Corrected after the October 2026 independent fact-check of private companies' funding rows (Q2 2026 rows). Astranis's $155 million delayed-draw credit facility from Trinity Capital, announced with its May 2026 Series E, is recorded as debt. ElevationSpace's Series B, announced as JPY 6.4 billion, is converted at the ECB rate of its announcement day: $39,695,370, not the rounded $40 million. Hermeus's April 2026 Series C equity was recorded twice, as a press-reported $200 million and as its Form D ($200,589,992): the press row is removed and the Form D row is dated to the 7 April announcement, labelled Series C, with lead investor Khosla Ventures. A second source is attached to Orbcomm's $460 million debt refinancing. Turion Space's Series B was stated as more than $75 million, a floor, so it keeps no dollar figure; the stated figure and lead investor Washington Harbour Partners are recorded. Rows counted in the private-funding total: ElevationSpace, Turion Space. Rows listed beside the total, never added in: Astranis, Orbcomm (debt); Hermeus (not classed as a space company by its recorded sector). (replaced $3.34B across 46 rounds; now $3.34B across 46)
October 7, 2026: Corrected after the October 2026 fact-check of the Starfish Space, QOSMIC and Skybound Medtech rows (Q2 2026 rows). Starfish Space's April 2026 Series B, announced as "over $100 million" and counted until now with no dollar figure, counts at $111,690,329, the total amount sold on its SEC Form D (0001886318-26-000001), the exact figure for the same round. QOSMIC's $3.33 million seed round, announced on 24 June 2026, is added: the row had no source link, so the open-data rule left it out; it now cites the company's own release. Skybound Medtech's $1,250,000 equity raise on SEC Form D (0002080612-26-000042), first sale 8 June 2026, is added: it was recorded after the edition was frozen. Rows counted in the private-funding total: Starfish Space, QOSMIC, Skybound Medtech. (replaced $3.34B across 46 rounds; now $3.46B across 48)
October 8, 2026: Corrected after the October 2026 Research accuracy review and the full re-verification of 2026 funding rows (Q2 2026). Zenk Space's CNY 180M round ($26,528,463) is state capital, not private funding: no lead is named and three of its four named investors are government-controlled (rule 3, no-named-lead test). ICEYE's EUR 450M Series F is converted at the ECB rate of 9 June 2026: $520,785,000 (was $520,000,000). Isar Aerospace's EUR 270M Series D is converted at the ECB rate of 9 June 2026: $312,471,000 (was $312,000,000). Optera's GBP 3M round is state capital, not private funding: it was led by the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund, financed by UK government bodies (rule 3, government-financed funds); it is dated 15 June 2026. Sophia Space's $7M June raise is a SAFE that has not converted, so it is debt under rule 1, not a private round (it was counted because its round type was blank). Dispatch's $500,000 is held out: no source says what instrument it was (rule 1, instrument not stated). The edition now reads $3,423,804,785 across 44 rounds (was $3,460,599,648 across 48). (replaced $3.46B across 48 rounds; now $3.42B across 44)
Since this edition was frozen. The live record for Q2 2026 now reads $4.09B across 87 rounds (+43 rounds, +$671.0M): rounds reported after the freeze. They are on the live tracker; this edition does not change.
How our Q2 2026 number compares
Each tracker's own published figure, linked
Space funding totals for the same period differ because trackers count different things. Each figure below was read on its source; a tracker that has not published the period says so. Where a tracker published a different window (a half-year), it is compared with our figure for that same window. Why space funding totals differ, definition by definition.
Our Q2 2026 space funding figure beside the figures other trackers published
Tracker
Figure
Window
Published
Theirs divided by ours (same window)
What it counts differently
SpaceNexus (this edition)
$3.42B
Q2 2026
2026-09-29
n/a
Closed private rounds into space companies only, from our own records. No IPOs, listed-company offerings, tender offers, debt, grants, acquisitions, rounds into companies not classed as space (such as defense companies without a space subsector), or announced raises that have not closed.
Space CapitalSpace Investment Quarterly (Space IQ) page
Largest rounds, Q2 2026
SpaceNexus funding records
The largest disclosed private rounds into space companies in Q2 2026
This edition counts closed private funding rounds into space companies dated April 1, 2026 to June 30, 2026, as recorded in the SpaceNexus funding database when the edition was frozen on September 29, 2026. A round reported after the freeze is on the live tracker, not in this edition; the edition page says how many there are.
Private funding counts 44 of the 70 capital events recorded in the quarter: priced equity rounds from seed to late stage, growth and strategic rounds and bridges. A convertible note or SAFE recorded on its own counts only once it converts into a priced round; until then it is debt and is reported separately. Grants are public money, not investment, and are reported separately.
Not counted, and reported separately with their own totals: grants (labelled as grants) (1, $33.0M); private rounds and grants into companies not classed as space (defense and other cross-domain companies without a space subsector) (3, $5.40B); ipos, direct listings and spac mergers (2, $86.73B); follow-on, at-the-market and other offerings by listed companies (7, $220.0M); debt financing (9, $26.33B); state capital (government or state-owned funds) (2, $30.6M); acquisitions (not funding) (1, $22.0M); instrument not stated (held until a source says the money is equity) (1, $500K).
Cite this editionAPA, Chicago or BibTeX, with this page's link and dates. The page is live, so cite its as-of date
APA
SpaceNexus. (2026, September 29). Space funding, Q2 2026: Dataset [Data set]. Retrieved September 29, 2026, from https://spacenexus.us/funding-tracker/2026-q2
Chicago
SpaceNexus. "Space funding, Q2 2026: Dataset." Data as of September 29, 2026. Accessed September 29, 2026. https://spacenexus.us/funding-tracker/2026-q2.
BibTeX
@misc{spacenexus_spacefundingq22026_2026,
author = {{SpaceNexus}},
title = {{Space funding, Q2 2026}: Dataset},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
howpublished = {\url{https://spacenexus.us/funding-tracker/2026-q2}},
url = {https://spacenexus.us/funding-tracker/2026-q2},
urldate = {2026-09-29},
note = {Data as of 2026-09-29; each fact links its primary source}
}
Period unclear (Q2 2026 in its page description; a first-half figure per its CEO)
as first read on 2026-09-25
n/a
The sentence above is in the Space IQ page's description (page metadata); the page itself shows no publication date. Space Capital's CEO called the same $31.6B a first-half total in a July 18, 2026 op-ed. Until Space Capital confirms the window, we compare it with no figure of ours for a quarter or a half-year. It counts private investment across the whole space economy, including companies that only use space-based data, navigation or connectivity (its examples include GPS rideshare and agricultural analytics); we count only companies whose own work is space.Source text: “$31.6 billion was invested across 129 space companies in Q2 2026”
Counts third-party private capital invested at arm's length worldwide (a founder's own money is excluded) across a SpaceTech universe that also takes in platforms such as high-altitude aircraft and data analytics. The tracker page is updated in place and shows no publication date; the date is when we first read the figure.Source text: “Highlights panel: $7.5 bn, invested in Q2 2026 ($8bn in Q1 2026); 141, deals in Q2 2026 (159 in Q1 2026)”
PitchBookSpace tech VC funding tops 2025 in just six months
1.4xvs $7.80B (ours for H1 2026 (January to June), computed live 2026-11-10 (not a frozen edition))
Venture capital deals only, worldwide, by PitchBook's Space Tech taxonomy, for the first half of 2026. It publishes no Q2-only figure, so it is compared with our January to June figure. PitchBook's own report page (August 25, 2026) prints both $11.3B across 244 deals and $11.5B across 245 deals for the same half.Source text: “Venture-backed space companies raised $11.3 billion across 244 deals through June.”
BryceTechStart-Up Space 2026 (covers 2025), report PDF
Publishes start-up space investment once a year: its latest, Start-Up Space 2026, covers 2025 ($10.9B across 235 deals). Its Q2 2026 quarterly briefing (August 25, 2026) covers launches, not investment. Its method (PDF pages 9 and 31) counts seed, venture and private equity plus debt financing, M&A and IPOs, up to a company's IPO or acquisition.
NovaspaceSpace Innovation Atlas, Q1 2026 (its latest public figure)
No Q2 2026 figure on its site as of September 25, 2026; its latest public figure is Q1 2026, $9.4B across 82 companies. It counts private investment in space ventures worldwide with debt financing included; its database also records IPOs, SPAC mergers, stock sales and government grants.
0.8xvs $7.80B (ours for H1 2026 (January to June), computed live 2026-11-10 (not a frozen edition))
A floor ("more than"), published six days after the half closed, so late-reported rounds may be missing. It is compared with our January to June figure. The underlying Payload Pro data is for subscribers and we have not read it.Source text: “More than $6.6B has been invested in the space industry in the first half of the year.”
Each row is classified from its own recorded round type and stage label. A private placement into a listed company counts as a listed-company offering; "Pre-IPO" is a private round.
A company counts as listed from its first trading day on a stock exchange (or the close of its SPAC merger). Rounds dated before that day are its private history and count as private funding like any other private round. Where a listed company’s listing date is not yet recorded, its current listing status decides and the row is marked "listing date not yet recorded".
Only rounds into space companies count. A company counts as space when its own recorded sector is space work (launch, satellites, ground segment, earth observation, in-space infrastructure and the like). Defense, aerospace, government and military companies count only when their recorded subsector names space work, so a defense company's rounds are excluded unless the company is space-specific (True Anomaly counts; Anduril does not). A company with no recorded sector is excluded. Excluded rounds are listed separately, never deleted.
8 counted rounds have no disclosed amount and add $0, so the totals are a floor, not an estimate.
Lead investors are split into co-leads ("Eclipse / Riot Ventures" is two leads). A co-led round counts in full for each co-lead, so the lead-investor totals can add up to more than the quarter.
Sector attribution follows the company profile, so a company that changed sector is reported under its current one in both quarters.
Q1 2026 has no frozen edition, so the comparison with it is computed from the live record at the freeze, by the same rule.
Announced raises that have not closed ("Raising now": a company says it is raising, or a report says it is in talks) are never counted. Only a closed round is a round.
Evidence: 9 sec-verified, 18 press-reported, 17 editor-entered. SEC-verified means the round was matched to an SEC Form D filing; press-reported means it was taken from a cited news report or company announcement and not yet matched to a filing; editor-entered means an editor recorded it by hand.
6 rounds were stated only as a floor or an approximation ("more than", "about"). They count as a round, the stated figure is shown and in the CSV, and nothing is added to the dollar total until a source gives an exact figure.
Rounds announced in another currency are converted to US dollars at the reference rate recorded on the round; the original amount is in the CSV.
Every figure is computed from our own records; nothing in this edition is model-written.