Munich-based Isar Aerospace is looking to raise an additional €250 million in funding, according to several media outlets.
If successful, the new funding round may bring the value of the German space startup close to €2 billion.
Since its foundation in 2018, Isar Aerospace has raised close to €600 million from investors, including the NATO Innovation Fund and Airbus Ventures, as well as several deep-tech venture capital funds and other financial institutions.
The preceding funding round took place in 2025, when the space startup secured €150 million in capital from Eldridge Capital through a convertible bond issue. Prior to that, in 2023, Isar Aerospace closed a €155 million Series C round, which was expanded the following year with an additional €65 million.
News of this potential capital raise comes at a time when the German firm is preparing for the second test launch of its Spectrum rocket, which, after several delays, is slated to take place in late March 2026.
Isar Aerospace’s first and only launch to date took place in March 2025 from Andøya spaceport, in the North of Norway.
On that occasion, the rocket crashed into the sea after a 30-second flight. Despite this outcome, at the time the company’s CEO and co-founder, Daniel Metzler, qualified that maiden flight as a success, since it achieved a clean liftoff and allowed for the testing of several systems.
In the context of fraying transatlantic links, Isar Aerospace, with its two-stage Spectrum rocket capable, designed to put in orbit payloads of up to one ton, has been touted as one of Europe’s best hopes to develop an independent industrial space ecosystem.
Other European companies developing similar rockets are ArianeGroup and its subsidiary MaiaSpace, Spanish startup PLD Space and Rocket Factory Augsburg, which, like Isar Aerospace, is also based in Bavaria, in the south of Germany.