Gravitilab Enters Liquidation Owing More Than £700,000 as Missing £25 Million Investment Bites

UK-based Gravitilab Aerospace Services has ceased trading and entered voluntary liquidation, owing more than £700,000 to unsecured creditors. The suborbital rocket builder announced its closure in a brief LinkedIn post on 5 August, ending its effort to field a hybrid-powered launch vehicle.

Documents filed with Companies House on 5 August, but not available for review until 12 August, show that Gravitilab's shareholders approved a voluntary winding-up at a general meeting held via Microsoft Teams on 20 July. The filings confirm the company is undergoing a voluntary liquidation, with liquidators Price Bailey appointed by its creditors.

A statement of affairs filed alongside the resolution details Gravitilab's financial position immediately before it closed. The company owed £324,465 to business creditors, £144,487 to 19 employees, £104,515 to four directors, and £59,001 on funding loans. A further £15,530.75 relating to employee holiday pay was classified as a preferential claim. Against those debts, Gravitilab listed just £92,243 as immediately available, almost all held in a client account. After the preferential claim is satisfied, £76,712 would remain for creditors, leaving a shortfall of £631,070.

At least part of the explanation for the collapse lies in a major investment that never fully materialised. Gravitilab listed a £24.998 million book debt from BNP Finnest Group, linked to a £25 million investment commitment made in July 2023. By April 2024, only £20,000 of the total had been received. Gravitilab petitioned to have Finnest Group wound up in October 2024, hoping to recover some of the almost £25 million outstanding. That liquidation is still underway. Accounts filed in January 2026 show the company employed an average of just three people, including directors, in 2025, down from 14 a year earlier and a peak of 19 in 2023, indicating the difficulties had been building for some time.

Gravitilab had been developing a suborbital launch vehicle called ISAAC, powered by a hybrid propulsion system and designed to carry payloads of up to 20 kilograms to an altitude of 170 kilometres. The company's website stated the rocket was expected to enter operational service by 2025, a milestone it never reached. Gravitilab did complete at least two test flights, the first involving a vehicle called Peregrine during an aerodynamic flight test in Australia in 2020, and the second using a rocket called ADA, launched in August 2021.

The filings make clear that Gravitilab ran out of financial runway before it could bring ISAAC into service, with its debts far exceeding its available funds and its planned major investment left largely unpaid. The company is now effectively defunct.

European Spaceflight contacted Price Bailey seeking details on whether Gravitilab's assets or intellectual property would be offered for sale. No response had been received at the time of publication. The liquidation of BNP Finnest Group also remains ongoing.