Ursa Major has raised 138 million USD in its Series D and D-1 funding rounds, with investments being led by Explorer 1 Fund and Eclipse.
RTX Ventures, Exor Ventures, Mack & Co., LLC, XN, and other institutional shareholders contributed to the rounds. The initial Series D round was completed earlier in the year, but fundraising was extended due to ‘strong interest in accelerating development on several future programmes.’
It comes just weeks after Ursa Major announced its new Lynx additive manufacturing-powered approach to the development of solid rocket motors. With this investment, Ursa Major will continue to develop Lynx, while scaling production capacity and advancing multiple propulsion programmes.
Since it last raised money, Ursa Major has launched its Lynx solution, introduced its Draper storable liquid engine designed to defend against hypersonic weapons, and hot-fired the 50,000-pound Ripley engine. It has also scaled production of its 5,000-pound-thrust Hadley engine to a rate of one-per-week, and qualified it as the world’s first rocket engine for space launch, in-space, and hypersonic missions.
"In the year since our last funding round, Ursa Major has secured significant commercial and government customers, delivered dozens of flight-ready engines, introduced new engine concepts, and worked to address critical gaps in our nation's defence. This includes developing Lynx, a line of solid rocket motors that can deliver urgently needed capabilities," commented Ursa Major CEO and founder Joe Laurienti. "This investment will support scaling our production capacity to meet strong market demand, as well as continued technology innovation for our medium- and heavy-weight propulsion systems."
"Ursa Major propulsion systems fill a critical gap in the defence industrial base today," added Greg Reichow, Partner at Eclipse and former Vice President of Production at Tesla. "For the U.S. and its allies, the ability to deter threats will depend on our ability to produce innovative solutions utilizing modern manufacturing methods that are not dependent on fragmented supply chains. Ursa Major's team possesses the technical prowess to deliver the high production rates, low cost, and advanced technology needed to help maintain national security."
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