Varda Space Industries has announced a $251 million Series D funding round as the company looks to scale its microgravity-enabled pharmaceutical processing capabilities.
The financing brings the total amount of capital raised by Varda to $598 million.
The round was led by Lux Capital and Natural Capital, with participation from Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, General Catalyst, 8090 Industries, Giant Step and Also Capital.
Varda is developing infrastructure designed to make in-space pharmaceutical processing a repeatable part of the drug-development pipeline.
The company is focused on the potential for microgravity to enable pharmaceutical materials, including active pharmaceutical ingredients, to be crystallised in ways that would not be possible under normal conditions on Earth. The objective is to enable novel drug formulations with potential applications for patients.
Shahin Farshchi, Partner at Lux Capital, said:
“In-space manufacturing means building what space needs, in space, and making what Earth can't. Varda is making life-saving drugs impossible to make under gravity. It's the first and only company delivering a real cadence of launches and re-entries, with capsules built to manufacture the impossible and return it home.”
Building Towards the First Medicine Made in Space
Research conducted over decades aboard the International Space Station has demonstrated the potential for microgravity to produce drug formulations that are difficult or impossible to achieve on Earth.
Varda is seeking to commercialise that opportunity through a combination of launch cadence, re-entry capabilities and pharmaceutical science.
Delian Asparouhov, co-founder and President of Varda, said:
“We started Varda with the conviction that the first product manufactured in space and consumed on Earth would be a pharmaceutical.
“This round gives us the resources to increase our cadence, deepen our pharmaceutical partnerships, get closer to delivering the first medicine made in space.”
Since its first mission launched in 2023, Varda has increased its flight activity and has completed six successful re-entry missions.
The company said it has more than a dozen additional launches and re-entries planned through 2028.
Varda's W-Series vehicles reach Mach 25 during re-entry from orbit and are designed to provide government and commercial partners with a repeatable and economical way of returning materials and data from space to Earth.
As launch cadence across the wider space industry increases, Varda is positioning re-entry infrastructure as a complementary capability to the increasingly established ability to send payloads into orbit.
About Varda Space Industries
Varda Space Industries is developing infrastructure for an orbital economy spanning in-orbit pharmaceutical processing and hypersonic re-entry capsules.
The company operates from El Segundo, California, with office and industrial production space, alongside offices in Washington, D.C. and Huntsville, Alabama.
Source: Varda Space Industries