Bulgarian aerospace company EnduroSat said on May 27 it has secured a €43mn investment round led by US-based Founders Fund, supporting it to scale up next-generation satellite production and expand its operations across Europe and the US.

The funding round included participation from regional investors CEECAT Capital, Morphosis Capital and existing backers, reflecting growing investor confidence in EnduroSat’s strategy to democratise access to space through modular, software-defined satellite platforms.

“This significant funding... highlights the strong confidence in EnduroSat’s vision and capabilities,” said founder and CEO Raycho Raychev in a press release.

The fresh capital will be used to accelerate production of EnduroSat’s new Endurance Gen3 ESPA-class satellites, which weigh between 200 and 500 kilograms and support advanced payloads such as hyperspectral imaging, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and broadband communications.

The Gen3 class features modular avionics, peak power of up to 3.5 kW and data transfer rates of 2 Gbps. With an entirely cableless bus design, the satellites can be assembled and tested within hours, significantly shortening production cycles compared to traditional aerospace models, according to the company.

“Our mission is to make space universally accessible... by building and operating the space infrastructure our customers need,” Raychev said. “By increasing our production and introducing our new generation of satellites, we’ll unlock access to satellite constellations for even more customers – with reliability and price transparency.”

Delian Asparouhov, partner at Founders Fund and president of Varda Space Industries, said EnduroSat’s shift from traditional aerospace supply chains to those used in consumer electronics and automotive manufacturing has given it a competitive edge.

“Raycho and his team... have taken the massive leap to go from utilising traditional aerospace supply chains to consumer electronics and automotive,” Asparouhov said. “This makes EnduroSat’s cost efficiency and performance above all in the market.”

EnduroSat’s new Space Service offering aims to simplify the space mission lifecycle by providing end-to-end support from payload integration to operations, allowing clients to focus on core activities without being burdened by technical complexity.

The company plans to use part of the funding to construct a 17,500-square-metre research and production centre in Sofia, which it says will be one of the largest space R&D facilities in Europe. The new facility will house two satellite assembly lines, expanded clean rooms and space qualification equipment, with the capacity to produce up to 60 satellites per month by the end of 2025.

In the US, EnduroSat is expanding its footprint with a new dedicated cleanroom to support commercial and defence clients.