Space industry to get access to new £80m venture capital fund
The plan is to attract others to join Thales Alenia Space, Airbus Defence and Space, Telespazio, Avanti and Con Dev.
Announcing the fund at the 2015 UK Space Conference in Liverpool, Seraphim CEO Mark Boggett said: "The objective is to give space entrepreneurs easier access to start-up and development capital. With the shift away from government-backed space industries to private enterprise there is a big demand, but start-up finance can often be hard to source."
Boggett said the fund will develop 10 long-term investment themes, drawn from the investing space corporations. As opportunities are identified the corporates will assist with due diligence evaluation, potentially becoming initial customers and even acquirers.
He added that the fund marks "demonstrable cooperation within the space industry, aimed at helping to achieve the ambitious growth targets of the UK government's Space Innovation and Growth Strategy (IGS)".
