Expansion

📣 One month after Emmanuel Macron's visit in Sweden, Expansion was at the French Embassy of #Stockholm to consolidate the French-Sweden friendship during a LP/GP meeting with our founding partners Charles Beigbeder, Ted E. and Ulf Palmnäs 👉 Thank you to our host, Etienne de Gonneville We are proud to strengthen our links with European players that allow us to keep supporting #space and #innovation 🚀 Erik Wijnbladh Christer Nilsson Cecilia Kellner Brian Cordischi Eléonore de Rose Szilvia Ödmansson Olivier Cuny Sandra Budimir Amaury Daignes Romain Andrieu-Guitrancourt Quentin Robert Marie Nicod

We were delighted to contribute to the panel discussion titled "Selling Growth Projections to Investors in an Uncertain Environment" at the SATELLITE 2025 conference in Washington, D.C., last week. The discussion revolved around the opportunity emerging from investing in sovereign capabilities and supporting a supply chain that can support the industry's growth at large. Many thanks for the invitation, to Claude Rousseau for expert moderation, our fellow panelists and SpaceNews for covering the story.

Following the successful launch of SpaceX’s Transporter-13 mission, three of our companies are now successfully in orbit. Transporter rideshare launches are always exciting to watch, as the space community comes to cheer for each other and business plans transform into tangible hardware in orbit. This time, we had two portfolio companies involved. U-Space, a Toulouse-based manufacturer of high-performance small satellites launched PANDORE and SOAP. Pandore tests important technologies for PNT applications. SOAP is a part of the Space Surveillance Service project developed under the France 2030 initiative. On the same flight, Arkadia Space, a green satellite propulsion manufacturer based in Spain became the first European company to launch a hydrogen peroxide-based propulsion system in orbit. To top it off, Dcubed, a German company building big things in space is on the same launch conducting IOD of their new actuators. Congratulations to all three teams, customers and partners Arkadia: Francho García, D-Orbit U-Space: Fabien Apper, Antoine Ressouche, Exolaunch, Safran, Airbus Defence and Space, Comat, Centre National d'Études Spatiales Dcubed: Thomas Sinn Markus Geiss

Next week, we are joining the Hello Tomorrow Global Summit. Their mission - "unlocking the power of deep tech to solve our toughest global challenges" resonates well with us. David DANA🎗️ of Expansion will join Earlybird's Dr. Hendrik Brandis alongside Space Cargo Unlimited CEO Nicolas Gaume for a session on in-space manufacturing titled "Space Labs: Interstellar Manufacturing For Tomorrow's Industries." Many thanks for the invitation - we are looking forward to joining 3000+ deep tech enthusiasts in Paris next week.

Many thanks to Douglas Gorman for covering the news of our portfolio company, Constellation Technologies & Operations. In ~5 months since the announcement of their seed round, the company now shared that their payload is successfully integrated and tested onboard D-Orbit’s ION vehicle, gearing up for a launch in June. Senior 5G Software Architect Mathieu Arnaud explains how this milestone pushes the boundaries of satellite-based connectivity: "Unlike previous in-orbit 5G demonstrations, which rely on transparent payloads merely repeating RF signals from the ground, our Early Test payload is regenerative—bringing true 5G processing onboard the satellite. This means that instead of acting as a simple relay, our system actively processes and manages the signal in space. Additionally, we are pioneering the use of 5G millimeter-wave frequencies (5G mmWave) for satellite-based broadband connectivity, a first in the industry. This is a major step forward in making low-latency, high-speed connectivity from space a reality." In the Payload piece, Charles DELFIEUX also comments on the company's operating model: "While SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper are attempting to dethrone terrestrial telecom companies and offer services from their megaconstellations direct-to-consumers, CTO has taken the opposite approach. The idea is to provide terrestrial telecom operators with shared access to space-based telecom services operated by CTO. In return, CTO gets access to terrestrial telecoms’ billions-strong customer bases."

Sandra Budimir, GP at Expansion is joining the EU Defense Investor Day in Brussels on April 2-3rd, 2025, organised by EC’s DG DEFIS. We look forward to getting the latest updates on EDF’s funding opportunities and reconnecting with players from the European Defence Ecosystem - reach out if you’d like to connect.

Expansion Ventures welcomes David DANA🎗️ as General Partner, alongside Sandra Budimir, Ted E. and Charles Beigbeder David has previously spent 15 impactful years at the European Investment Fund, the largest and most active LP in the European VC ecosystem. Most recently, David was the Head of Disruptive Technologies and Innovation VC Fund investments, heading a team of 10 investment professionals active in the deeptech area across Europe, overviewing sectors including Space, Defence, Semiconductors and Quantum. As a seasoned investor in the VC field for almost 20 years, David brings vast expertise, a large global network and a true passion for the European technology and venture market, that will complement the firm's existing skillset. David mentions “I have always had a genuine interest in Aerospace & Defence, which are sectors I have been actively working on for many years, participating in specific programs such as the Karman Project. Therefore, when the opportunity to join Expansion Ventures arose, it was very clear to me that this was the next step in my career, as I aim at putting this knowledge and competences at work to bring added-value to the team and our portfolio companies. The quality of the team, combined with the truly pan-European setup of the firm made it an easy choice at the end!”  Expansion Ventures is a pan-European seed fund focusing on Sustainable Aerospace and Defence (A&D). We fundamentally believe in the opportunity for European players to capitalize on the opportunity in A&D, created by the disruption of legacy players, strong tailwinds in public support and defence spending and a true chance for a positive impact across climate change monitoring and decarbonized aviation. We are glad to have David join us on this mission, for the best interests of our investors and of Europe Welcome David! 

Encouraging liquidity events is critical for the success of space and startup ecosystems in Europe more broadly. This year, we saw the largest acquisition of a VC-backed space company in Europe ever, when Safran acquired Preligens for 220M EUR. While the benchmark has been scarce so far, large growth rounds of several European startups, the changing landscape of European primes and interest of non-space players in the industry suggest we will see more M&A in the European space sector going forward. Together with Quilty Space, Synergy Capital and esteemed guests, we prepared a webinar to explore the topic both from a macro and a practical point of view - with a market overview and sell-side, buy-side and investor one-on-one chats. Join us on Thursday at 3pm CET at this link: https://lnkd.in/e_AWjuDP

🎉 Huge congratulations to our #portfolio company, ION-X, on raising €13 million in their latest #funding round! 🚀 This funding is a decisive milestone that will propel ION-X's groundbreaking #ion thrusters for small #satellites into industrial production. With this support, they are set to lead the charge in revolutionizing #space propulsion technology, targeting the production of 200 ion thrusters annually by 2028 at their upcoming facility in Île-de-France. ⚡Their #technology, which offers unparalleled efficiency and sustainability, is set to make a lasting #impact on the rapidly expanding small satellite market. 🌌 At Expansion we are very proud to have supported ION-X since 2022 and to witness their journey toward becoming an international leader in space mobility. Congratulations to Thomas Hiriart and the entire Ion-X team for this remarkable achievement! #Innovation #SpaceTech #VC #NewSpace #IonPropulsion #ExpansionVentures Charles Beigbeder Sandra Budimir Ted E. Ulf Palmnäs Quentin Robert Benjamin Pavie Charles Gueudet Oliver Prat-Stanford Filip Kocian 🎗️

Glad to welcome leading VCs during the #abudhabifinanceweek, to speak about fundraising in MENA for #frenchtech Thank you #insead for kindly hosting and coorganizing the event And a special thanks to Valerie Hawley, Walid Mansour Pascal Dufour Roger Bassoul Benjamin Grolimund Julien Pageaud Ted E. Bernard-Louis Roques