Pavlo Gonchar | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Space Startup Varda announced Thursday that it has raised $187 million in Series C funding led by venture capital firm natural capital and shrug-up capital, continuing to drive drug manufacturing in space.
The most recent round included participation from Peter Thiel, Lux Capital, Khosla Ventures and Caffeinated Capital. Total capital Varda has been raised to $329 million.
“By expanding, we can support work with more complex molecules and ultimately increase cadence, achieving the turnaround time the pharmaceutical industry expects,” Chief Science Director Adrien Radosy said in a press release Thursday.
Varda’s main mission is to fire and return medicines made in space. The startup says that different gravity causes different drug crystallization and different orbits, allowing them to complete drugs that are currently difficult to manufacture.
In 2024, Space Startup’s W Series 1 capsule was approved by the FAA after successfully creating drugglitnavir the previous year.
So far, Varda said the company has been able to complete three space launches. The fourth is currently on track, and the company expects to launch a fifth by the end of the year. Varda’s system uses Rocket Lab’s Photon Spacecraft for operation, adding manufacturing modules and Heatshield protection capsules.
“With this capital, Varda will continue to increase flight cadences and continue to build the pharmaceutical lab that will provide the world’s first microgravity-enabled drug formulation,” said Will Bruey, CEO of Varda.
Varda Space Industries was the first company to process materials outside the International Space Station.
Recently, the space company has also run a testbed for the US government to advance technology using W-Series re-entry vehicles.
Varda said it has expanded to Huntsville, Alaska, opened a lab in El Segundo, California, and began work to crystallize more drugs.
“Our new laboratory space is an investment in our belief that spatial drug manufacturing will promote the foundations of an orbital economy,” Radseah said.
