Blackswan raises €760,000 to develop its simulators for space maintenace

Blackswan Space, a Lithuania-based spacetech startup developing software products for complex space & defence missions, has secured €760,000 in Pre-Seed funding round.

In collaboration with the European Space Agency and commercial partners, Blackswan has been expanding on its ‘autonomy-as-a-service’ tech — that intends to automate satellite servicing and refuelling — since 2019.

Its Mission Design Simulator enables customers to simulate complex spacecraft maneuvers for in-orbit servicing, object retrieval missions, space domain awareness, or simulating satellite constellations in real-time. The Vision Based Navigation hardware payload running proprietary algorithms, enables spacecrafts to perform autonomous navigation maneuvers when control from the ground is not possible.

The funding round was led by ScaleWolf, a hybrid accelerator and fund for defense tech with participation from Linas Sargautis, co-founder of NanoAvionics, Lemonade Stand, Baltic Sandbox Ventures, and Vladas Lašas – a serial entrepreneur and angel investor.

With the new infusion of capital, the company plans to accelerate towards in-orbit demonstration in the next few years.

"We are in a strong position to solve one of the major problems and opportunities facing the space economy today - the growing number of satellites and other space infrastructure in orbit that will be impossible to control all from the ground," said Marius Klimavicius, co-founder and CEO. "Our nimble team has bootstrapped by self-funding and winning contracts from ESA, this funding round is the rocket booster to help us level up."