K2 Space raises $500M at $6.8B valuation, doubling down on mega satellites

The two-year-old startup founded by ex-SpaceX engineers is now worth more than many publicly traded aerospace companies

K2 Space has raised $500 million in a Series D funding round that values the satellite startup at $6.8 billion.

Kleiner Perkins and Iconiq co led the round, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alphabet’s CapitalG, Altimeter Capital Management, and other investors.

Founded in 2022, K2 Space develops large satellites for high power applications including broadband communications, military sensors, and defense systems.

The company launched its first satellite nearly four months ago and is now focused on scaling production at its factory in Torrance, California.

K2 Space says its satellites can be produced for about $15 million each, compared with hundreds of millions of dollars for some traditional models. Its first design generates 20 kilowatts of power, comparable with some of the largest commercial satellites produced by Airbus and Boeing.

CEO Karan Kunjur said the company has secured more than $1 billion in signed contracts, divided almost evenly between government and commercial customers.

Those agreements include work for the US Space Force and a contract connected to President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense project. K2 Space is participating alongside defense startup Anduril and other space technology companies.

The startup has raised more than $1 billion since its founding and employs 325 people. It plans to use the new funding to expand its workforce, recruit specialized satellite technicians, and increase manufacturing capacity.

K2 Space is also developing a satellite designed to generate five times more power than its current model. The company aims to manufacture it by the end of 2028 and launch it as early as 2029.

Kunjur said the company’s infrastructure could eventually support data centers in space, a concept being explored by companies including SpaceX and Blue Origin as demand for artificial intelligence computing capacity grows.

K2 Space was founded by brothers Karan and Neel Kunjur. Neel previously spent five years working on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.

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