Varda Gets Funds for Space Factories

"Varda Space Industries, a space manufacturing startup seeking to help customers develop medicines and other materials in microgravity, has raised $90 million in new venture capital to conduct a series of space missions in coming years.

Microgravity -- the condition in which people or objects appear to be weightless -- can improve the formation of crystals used to manufacture drugs, which may lead to more potent and less-costly medications.

Drugmakers have long conducted research aboard the International Space Station. But El Segundo, Calif.-based Varda aims to make microgravity more readily accessible to the industry by routinely launching unmanned capsules containing factories that produce crystals. The space factories have equipment that scientists control from the ground.

Unmanned capsules enable the company to work with chemical compounds and solvents that would be dangerous to bring aboard manned flights, said Varda co-founder and President Delian Asparouhov.

Varda in February recovered a capsule it had launched last year to make crystals of the HIV medicine ritonavir. It plans to publish the results in a peer-reviewed journal, Asparouhov said.

The company has signed contracts with its first pharmaceutical customers, which will send medications on future Varda space missions, he said.

Varda, founded in November 2020, plans to disclose its initial customers before its next launch, expected to take place on a SpaceX rocket this summer, he said.

This new financing, which brings Varda's total equity funding to $145 million, will help Varda launch capsules more frequently. It expects two launches in 2024 and plans to increase the cadence until it conducts monthly space missions, likely in late 2027 or early 2028, Asparouhov said.

He declined to disclose Varda's valuation but said it increased significantly with this financing.

Caffeinated Capital, a Varda investor since 2020, led this latest financing round. Varda has been meeting its goals despite the complexity of its business and has built a large pipeline of customers, said Caffeinated founder and Managing Partner Raymond Tonsing.

To sustain interest, Varda will need to show that it helps companies develop better drugs, cost-effectively.

"There are definitely still some unknowns in terms of how excited the commercial market's going to be three or four years from now," Tonsing said. "But we're confident this is going to produce some really interesting results for them and they're going to continue to stay in line to work with us."" [1]

1. EXCHANGE --- Varda Gets Funds for Space Factories. Gormley, Brian.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 06 Apr 2024: B.10.