Swiss startup PAVE Space has secured $40 million in a massive seed funding round to accelerate the development of advanced in-space propulsion systems and highly dynamic orbital platforms. Led by Visionaries Club and Creandum, the investment will fund the commercialization of storable bipropellant engines designed to dramatically lower the cost of reaching high-altitude orbits. The deal, announced this week, highlights surging investor interest in the “last mile” of space logistics.
The substantial capital injection marks a significant milestone for the young aerospace company. Prior to this seed round, PAVE Space had raised approximately $2 million, according to CEO Julie Böhning.
Breaking the Cryogenic Bottleneck
The commercial space industry currently relies heavily on cryogenic fuels for high-thrust propulsion. While highly efficient, these propellants require complex, heavy thermal management systems to prevent boil-off in the harsh environment of space.
This limitation makes long-duration missions and rapid on-orbit maneuvering technically challenging and prohibitively expensive. Satellite operators frequently face a difficult choice: pay a premium for a direct launch to higher orbits or spend months slowly raising their altitude using low-thrust electric propulsion.
PAVE Space aims to eliminate this compromise by utilizing a storable rocket bipropellant. This chemical architecture remains stable at room temperature, drastically simplifying launch operations and spacecraft design. By removing the need for cryogenic cooling, the company can deliver high thrust on demand without the associated mass penalties.
Two Distinct Product Families
Founded earlier in 2024 by Böhning and Jérémy Marciacq, PAVE Space builds upon the duo’s previous experience co-founding the Gruyére Space Program, a Swiss reusable rocket initiative. The founders are leveraging that engineering heritage to develop two distinct product lines: LYOBA and IBEX.
LYOBA is designed as a robust 45-kilonewton (kN) kick-stage engine. The system functions as an orbital tug, specifically engineered to transport spacecraft from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), Geostationary Equatorial Orbit (GEO), or even cislunar trajectories.
Speed is a critical differentiator for the LYOBA engine. According to company specifications, the kick-stage can complete these complex orbital transfers in under 24 hours.
This rapid transit time fundamentally alters the economics of high-orbit operations. Böhning notes that PAVE’s kick-stage architecture can reduce the cost of reaching higher orbits by up to 40%. GEO operators can now purchase highly discounted LEO rideshare slots and rely on PAVE to power the expensive “last mile” of the journey.
Dual-Use Capabilities and the Orbital “Police Car”
While LYOBA targets heavy-duty transport, the company’s second product line addresses the growing need for tactical space mobility. IBEX is a roughly 200-kilogram, payload-agnostic platform built for highly dynamic, rapid-response operations on orbit.
The IBEX platform leans heavily into dual-use applications, serving both commercial and defense customers. Military space operations increasingly require assets capable of swift repositioning to inspect unknown objects, avoid debris, or evade hostile actions.
PAVE Space describes the IBEX platform as an orbital “police car.” The storable bipropellant system allows operators to execute high-impulse maneuvers immediately, granting defense customers the ability to observe other satellites closely or rapidly retreat from potential threats.
A Broad Coalition of European Investors
The $40 million seed round underscores a strong European commitment to building sovereign space capabilities. Beyond lead investors Visionaries Club and Creandum, the round attracted a deep bench of venture capital and institutional backers.
Participating investors include Lombard Odier Investment Managers, Atlantic, SISTAFUND, b2venture, ACE Investment Partners, Ilavska Vuillermoz Capital, Pareto Ventures, and Motier Ventures. The diverse syndicate provides PAVE Space with extensive financial runways and strategic connections across the European defense and tech ecosystems.
Aggressive Testing and Flight Schedule
PAVE Space plans to deploy the fresh capital immediately to support an aggressive test-and-demonstration timeline over the next 12 months. The engineering team is currently preparing for a critical hotfire test of the company’s primary engine, scheduled to occur before the end of the year.
Flight heritage will follow shortly after. PAVE Space has secured a slot on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission, currently targeting a launch no earlier than October. This mission will serve as an in-space demonstration of the company’s proprietary avionics system.
Concurrently, the startup is pushing toward the complete qualification of its IBEX in-space mobility platform. If the ground and avionics tests proceed as planned, PAVE anticipates conducting the first full launch of the mobility platform next year.
To support this rapid scaling, the Swiss company is expanding its geographic and personnel footprint. PAVE Space will open a new office within the European Union to facilitate closer collaboration with regional defense and commercial partners. The startup is actively hiring propulsion engineers, avionics specialists, mission designers, and commercial business development teams.
Implications for the Space Economy
The successful funding and imminent deployment of PAVE Space’s technology signal a major shift in how the industry views orbital logistics. As mega-constellations crowd LEO, the ability to efficiently bypass this congestion and access MEO or cislunar space becomes a critical strategic advantage.
Furthermore, the rise of dual-use orbital platforms like IBEX reflects growing geopolitical tensions expanding into the space domain. Spacecraft maneuverability is no longer just a tool for station-keeping; it is rapidly becoming a fundamental requirement for space domain awareness and asset protection.
Industry observers will be watching PAVE Space’s upcoming hotfire and Transporter-18 avionics tests closely. Successfully demonstrating the reliability of their storable bipropellant systems in a flight environment will be the ultimate validation of the startup’s ambitious 40% cost-reduction claims, potentially triggering a broader industry pivot away from complex cryogenic kick stages.
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