El Segundo, California-based Varda Space Industries Inc., raised USD 251 million in a Series D financing led by Lux Capital and Natural Capital to increase the frequency of its orbital manufacturing missions and expand pharmaceutical-development partnerships.
The round included Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, General Catalyst, 8090 Industries, Giant Step, and Also Capital, and brought total capital raised by Varda to USD 598 million. The company said the financing will support its goal of progressing from experimental pharmaceutical processing in orbit toward delivering medicines manufactured using microgravity for use on Earth.
Varda is developing automated spacecraft that carry pharmaceutical-processing equipment into low Earth orbit and return the processed material to Earth in reentry capsules. Microgravity reduces effects such as sedimentation and convection during crystallization, potentially allowing pharmaceutical crystal forms or particle properties that are difficult to reproduce under terrestrial conditions and could support new drug formulations.
The company has completed six capsule reentries since its first mission launched in 2023 and plans more than a dozen additional launches and returns through 2028. Varda and Southern Launch have an agreement covering 20 additional reentries at Australia's Koonibba Test Range through 2028 as the company seeks to make orbital processing a repeatable manufacturing service.