Reflex Aerospace secures record €50 million as satellites deemed Europe’s “Achilles heel”

Reflex Aerospace, a German manufacturer of high-performance satellite platforms, today announced the successful closing of its €50 million Series A funding round – the largest Series A in the European New Space sector to date.

The round was led by Human Element together with Alpine Space Ventures, Bayern Kapital, HTGF, Renovatio Financial Investments.

“Europe cannot afford to remain reliant on external actors for space-based intelligence,” said Walter Ballheimer, CEO of Reflex Aerospace. “We will invest our own capital, we will work with the best partners in their respective domains, and we will act now because in the current environment , there is no time to waste.”

This announcement by Reflex Aerospace sits within a clear uptick of investment in European space- and defence-adjacent hardware startups in 2025.

While no other German startup in the same “satellite platform/ISR constellation” niche has appeared on our coverage, the presence of German players such as HyImpulse Technologies indicates a strong domestic environment for SpaceTech financing.

Elsewhere in Europe, Space Forge in the UK secured €26.8 million to advance in-space manufacturing, while Astradyne in Italy raised €2 million to develop ultralight solar panels for orbital platforms.

In that context, Reflex Aerospace’s €50 million raise represents the largest funding event in the European New Space sector so far in 2025, highlighting sustained investor interest in sovereignty-driven satellite infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities.

​“While Europe is rebuilding its sovereign defense capabilities, Reflex is transforming how satellites are built, designing payload – centric buses that can be rapidly manufactured without costly megafactories,” said Christian Sullivan, Managing Partner of Human Element. “Their approach delivers the flexibility and speed needed to meet the growing ISR demand across Germany and allied markets.”

Founded in 2021, Reflex Aerospace is a manufacturer of high-performance, payload-specific platforms for commercial and defense applications. The company specialises in applying modern manufacturing techniques to reduce lead times and improve performance for critically important space infrastructure.

This new funding will accelerate the development, production, and deployment of sovereign satellite constellations providing Optical, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Space Domain Awareness (SDA), and Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) capabilities. Part of the financing round will be used to expand existing manufacturing capacity in Bavaria to manufacture satellite constellations for intelligence and communications purposes.

Reflex Aerospace aims to have all capabilities ready for deployment and demonstrated in orbit by 2027.

From NATO and the EU to the German government, recent announcements across multiple political levels underline the strategic imperative driving Reflex Aerospace’s mission.

As the EU plans to launch its European Space Shield Initiative in 2026, the German Federal Ministry of Defence (Bundesministerium der Verteidigung) announced in September that Germany will invest roughly €35 billion in space-related defence projects through 2030.

In his address, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius emphasised that satellite networks are an “Achilles heel of modern societies.”

Against this backdrop, Europe faces an urgent need for independent access to space – based intelligence. Global instability has exposed the risks of reliance on external providers for critical geospatial data.

Reflex Aerospace aims to close these gaps by dramatically improving lead times, resilience, and sovereignty of Europe’s intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) infrastructure.

Reflex Aerospace’s first remote sensing satellite reached orbit in January 2025. Upcoming satellites will be designed and built using Reflex’s next-generation Praetora platform architecture developed specifically for critical ISR missions.

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