Startup · $8.5m raised
Sydney, NSW
Programs: Australian Government (International Space Investment India Projects)
Every investor coverage indicates participated in a round Space Machines Company raised.
| Investor | Rounds | Invested |
|---|---|---|
| Australian Government | Accelerator · Grant | $8,500,000 |
| Australian Space Agency | Grant | $8,500,000 |
Companies Space Machines Company acquired or merged with, per published coverage. Buying a company is not investing in one: nothing here counts in the deals column.
| Name | Role | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Rajat Kulshrestha | CEO · Founder | Startup Daily, @AuManufacturing (Thu 25 Sep 2025), @AuManufacturing (Tue 10 Jun 2025), podtail.nl, @AuManufacturing (Thu 27 Jun 2024), @AuManufacturing (Tue 30 Apr 2024), @AuManufacturing (Tue 5 Mar 2024) |
| George Freney | Founder | @AuManufacturing, podtail.nl |
| Mark Ramsey | Lead on the Project | @AuManufacturing |
Stories naming Space Machines Company. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Defence Trailblazer showcases its researchers, ventures and projects at an Adelaide defence summit, citing over $140 million in industry support, as it prepares to hand over to AUSDII.
Space Machines Company will make satellites at Bradfield's Advanced Manufacturing Readiness Facility under a NSW government agreement, and last month finalised its Scintilla 3D-printed rocket engine.
CSIRO has printed what is called a national-first dual-metal rocket thruster for Space Machines Company's Optimus Viper spacecraft under the iLAuNCH program; the founders appear on the publisher's podcast this week.
Gilmour Space's Eris rocket lifted off but exploded seconds later near Bowen; the founder hailed the short flight as a milestone, while its ElaraSat satellite bus flew successfully on a SpaceX rideshare mission.
A satellite-servicing firm leads a collaborative effort, backed by program funding, to build a robotic test facility with university and defence partners; its 2026 debris mission earlier received an $8.5 million space agency grant.
Roundup: Space Machines' joint India mission clears a design milestone with an $8.5m government grant behind it, RMIT and Skykraft scale up photonics-based navigation tech, and SunCable names a new group CEO.
OIF Ventures' 2024 review: two portfolio companies acquired, a talent-leadership hire, its fourth fund deploying, new investments in eight named startups and nine follow-on rounds.
Weekly roundup of the outlet's most-read stories: grants for industry bodies, Space Machines' India mission funding, a plastics recycler's Melbourne factory, an Austal ownership debate, and a quantum growth centre.
Opinion piece by Advanced Navigation's CEO in an @AuManufacturing series arguing for space R&D investment, citing the company's $5.2 million Australian Space Agency grant and Space Machines' satellite launch.
An Australian satellite servicing firm leads an India-Australia debris management mission backed by an $8.5 million government grant; two other companies also won awards under the bilateral space program.
Also Startup Daily·@AuManufacturing·@AuManufacturing·Defence Connect·@AuManufacturing
Valiant Space's VS-1 thruster has reached orbit aboard Space Machines Company's Optimus servicing vehicle after flying on a Falcon 9, with its development backed by an Australian Space Agency grant programme.
Space Machines Company says its Optimus orbital servicing vehicle, described as Australia's largest private satellite, lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, with Australian firms and research partners among those involved in the mission.
Advanced Navigation received a $306,631 grant from the Australian Department of Defence's Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority program to develop local photonic chip manufacturing; its Boreas X90 will fly on a Space Machines orbital vehicle.
Podcast conversation with Esper Satellite Imagery's young chief executive about hyperspectral imaging satellites, customer pre-orders, a joint space mission with other Australian firms, and a consortium grant.
The Gold Coast rocket maker has won federal co-funding for a 32-member space manufacturing network, backing a Queensland manufacturing hub and a new orbital launch pad at Bowen.
Spiral Blue receives a $578,000 AMGC commercialisation grant for a hyperspectral satellite imagery project with several partners, and had earlier won an Australian Space Agency supply chain grant.
Also @AuManufacturing·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany
Sydney satellite monitoring firm HEO Robotics completed an undisclosed seed round led by Winton Group's David Harding to launch its in-orbit inspection product, with several investors participating and an existing backer increasing its stake.
Gold Coast rocket firm Gilmour Space raised a $61 million Series C led by Fine Structure Ventures, with Blackbird, Main Sequence and super funds taking part, ahead of a planned 2022 orbital launch.
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Gilmour Space and Fleet Space have partnered to launch six Australian-built nanosatellites in 2023, while Gilmour's chief executive criticises federal agencies for providing no funding or contracts to the local space sector.