The Exploration Company Raises $450 Million to Fund Nyx Capsule and Storm Engine

European space logistics startup The Exploration Company has secured $450 million (€387 million) in a Series C funding round to advance its Nyx reusable capsule and Storm rocket engine. Announced on 8 September, the round brings the company's total funding since its 2021 founding to approximately $680 million.

The round was co-led by US venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners, London-based venture capital firm Atomico, and the Scaleup Europe Fund, a European growth investment fund managed by Swedish private equity group EQT. Existing investors also contributed. The company's previous round was a €150 million Series B in late 2024.

The near-term focus for the new funding will be development of the Nyx capsule, designed to ferry cargo to and from low Earth orbit. Future iterations will add capabilities to carry crew to and from LEO and cargo to the surface of the Moon. In a June announcement, the company said Nyx's first demonstration flight was expected to launch in 2028.

The Series C funding will also accelerate development of Storm, a reusable high-thrust rocket engine powered by liquid oxygen and biomethane. Storm is intended to provide the propulsion foundation for a future reusable European super-heavy launcher capable of carrying up to 40 tonnes to low Earth orbit in a reusable configuration. The funding will enable the company to conduct subscale thrust chamber and pre-burner tests in the coming months, followed by an oxygen-rich power-pack test and a workhorse engine test over the next several years.

In June, the company briefly added mention of a reusable heavy-lift rocket called Yrene to its website, with imagery that appeared to show the vehicle powered by nine Storm engines. A company spokesperson subsequently described Yrene as a long-term concept, saying the short and medium-term focus remained on the capsule and propulsion programmes. References to Yrene were later removed from the website.

The company said it has secured more than $2 billion in contracts and commitments from public and private customers, including agreements with the European Space Agency and commercial space station operators. The combination of contracts and commitments makes it difficult to determine how much of that figure represents firm contracted revenue rather than non-binding or conditional future business.

CEO Hélène Huby said the financing would allow the company to execute with urgency. "This financing will allow us to execute with urgency: to bring Nyx to the International Space Station and safely back to Earth, while accelerating Storm, the high-thrust propulsion capability Europe needs for its future reusable heavy launcher," Huby said.

The next milestones named by the company are the subscale thrust chamber and pre-burner tests expected in the coming months, the oxygen-rich power-pack test, and the workhorse engine test scheduled over the next several years. Nyx's first demonstration flight remains targeted for 2028.