Taking on space debris with AI, Portuguese startup rakes in €2.5 million

The space economy itself is poised to grow from +$300 billion to $1 trillion, fueled by lower cost of access to space, enabled by the diversification of platforms and their success, and accelerated by several well-financed operators planning to launch tens of thousands of new satellites. In addition to the expected exponential increase in the number of satellites, there are an estimated 1 million debris objects, sized between 1cm and 10cm, in Earth orbit. The probability of satellite collisions is already increasing dramatically and will continue to do so, as will the consequent massive business disruption and security risks.

Add to this the tragic recent anti-satellite missile tests performed by some countries, and it becomes clear why space safety, security, and sustainability have taken center stage and have become an unquestionably urgent and critical need to the global economy.

Tackling this problem, Portugal-based Neuraspace has raised €2.5 million from Armilar Venture Partners. The company will use the funding to accelerate the commercialisation of its platform.

Founded in 2020, the startup is on a mission to fight space debris. The company has developed an advanced AI-powered space debris monitoring and satellite collision avoidance platform, to enable safe and sustainable in-orbit operations.

Nuno Sebastião, founder, Neuraspace; and co-founder and CEO of the unicorn Feedzai said: “I believe many of the challenges facing Space safety and security today can be addressed by applying many of the lessons we have learned from growing Feedzai into a billion-dollar company. Neuraspace will do for space what Feedzai is doing for finance by using advanced AI and a fully automated risk operations platform.”

Chiara Manfletti, chief operations officer, Neuraspace added: “We aim to provide satellite operators the solution that will help them unlock the extraordinary value of the New Space economy. Neuraspace will help usher in a new era in space, and we will do this together with the ecosystem that we want to see develop around us.”