Seraphim establishes Global Space Futures Advisory Council
Image by Chris J Mitchell / copyright Shutterstock
Bringing together leading space specialists from across the global space ecosystem, the Advisory Council includes former astronauts, space entrepreneurs, senior investors and policy leaders with experience spanning commercial space, national programmes, defence, climate science and global communications.
The Council has been established to provide an internationally representative forum capable of shaping policy thinking and strengthening cross-border collaboration as the global space sector continues to evolve rapidly, with space activity becoming increasingly strategic, commercial and geopolitical.
Its work will centre on structural questions expected to shape the space sector over the coming decade. These include how space infrastructure intersects with national security and energy resilience, the expanding role of space-derived data in climate monitoring, communications and artificial intelligence, the emergence of a more clearly multipolar space economy and the implications of rapid commercial expansion beyond Earth orbit for regulation, sustainability and international cooperation.
Chaired by satellite industry pioneer Candace Johnson, the Advisory Council brings together senior leaders whose careers span the foundational decades of commercial space through to today’s emerging SpaceTech landscape:
- Anousheh Ansari – CEO, XPRIZE and first female private space explorer.
- Ann Winblad – Co founder and Managing Director, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners.
- Candace Johnson – Co founder of SES and pioneer in global satellite communications.
- Marco Fuchs – CEO, OHB SE, a European satellite manufacturer.
- Masayasu Ishida – Co founder and CEO, SPACETIDE, Programme Director, Japan Space Strategy Fund.
- Pascale Ehrenfreund – President, COSPAR, Research Professor, Space Policy Institute, George Washington University.
- Rob Desborough – General Partner, Seraphim Space and co founder of the Seraphim Space accelerator.
To begin with, the Advisory Council will include six members appointed for a two-year term, with its inaugural meeting planned for Wednesday, 15th April 2026, in Colorado Springs.
Discussions at the first meeting will centre on 'The Next 10 Years of Space and SpaceTech Investment' — a decade widely seen as pivotal for the sector’s commercial, strategic and geopolitical trajectory. The Council will expand to around 10 leading global experts over the course of 2026.
The space sector has recorded its strongest year on record. Investment reached $3.8 billion in Q4 2025, bringing total funding over the past 12 months to $12.4 billion, up from an annual investment of $1 billion a decade ago. This reflects a structural shift in how governments, corporations, and financial institutions view space as a key investment asset class and an essential component of national and economic infrastructure.
Capital is increasingly concentrated in technologies underpinning communications resilience, defence and national security, critical infrastructure, climate and Earth observation and data-driven services across multiple industries. At the same time, the acceleration of the global space sector brings new risks into sharper focus, from congestion and sustainability in orbit to supply chain concentration, regulatory fragmentation and rising geopolitical tension.
Candace Johnson, Chair of the Seraphim Global Space Futures Advisory Council, said: “Space now touches every continent, an expanding number of countries and many of the world’s most critical sectors, from communications and energy to security, climate monitoring and economic development. We are witnessing the rapid emergence of a truly global and multipolar space economy at a moment when collaboration, governance and long-term thinking matter more than ever.
"This Council brings together globally representative talent spanning commercial space, science, policy, entrepreneurship and investment. Its role is not only to consider the scale of opportunity ahead but to engage seriously with the complex challenges, from sustainability and regulation to security and international coordination — that will shape the next decade of space activity.”
Rob Desborough, Partner at Seraphim Space, said: “The space sector has entered a fundamentally new phase. What was once a specialist domain has become critical infrastructure, underpinning communications, national security, climate intelligence and energy resilience. With that shift comes both extraordinary opportunity and a more complex set of risks that investors, governments and industry need to navigate together.
"The Seraphim Global Space Futures Advisory Council has been created to help us look beyond individual investment cycles and think more structurally about where the global space economy is heading. By bringing together perspectives from across continents, disciplines and generations of space development, the Council will help inform our long-term strategy as the sector becomes increasingly commercial, multipolar and geopolitically consequential.”
Established in 2016, Seraphim Space has emerged as the world’s preeminent investment group dedicated exclusively to the SpaceTech sector. The firm has pioneered SpaceTech as a distinct investment category, launching both the world’s first private and public venture capital funds devoted to this field.
Since its inception, Seraphim has supported 149 companies spanning 33 countries, with its portfolio companies collectively raising more than £10 billion and nine achieving unicorn status.
