{"id":846281,"date":"2025-05-06T20:12:05","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T01:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/06\/aetherflux-raises-50-million-for-space-based-solar-power\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T20:12:05","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T01:12:05","slug":"aetherflux-raises-50-million-for-space-based-solar-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/06\/aetherflux-raises-50-million-for-space-based-solar-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Aetherflux raises $50 million for space-based solar power"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Aetherflux plans to launch an initial demonstration satellite to test its space-based solar power technologies by 2026. Credit:<\/span> Aetherflux<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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WASHINGTON \u2014 A startup taking an alternative approach to space-based solar power has raised $50 million as it works towards a first demonstration mission next year.<\/p>\n

Aetherflux announced April 2 it raised a $50 million Series A round led by Index Ventures and Interlagos. Several other funds and individuals participated in the round, including Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and NEA.<\/p>\n

The startup announced plans last October<\/a> to develop a constellation of satellites that would collect solar power and beam it to Earth using lasers. The approach is a departure from previous concepts for space-based solar power, which have traditionally involved giant spacecraft operating in geostationary orbit and transmitting power using microwaves to rectennas on the ground.<\/p>\n

Baiju Bhatt, founder and chief executive of Aetherflux, said in an interview last October that the \u201call or nothing\u201d approach of those earlier designs was a major reason why there has been little progress on the concept, which was first proposed more than a half-century ago. \u201cOur main observation is the reason it hasn\u2019t happened is because that design is not one that you can iterate on,\u201d he said then.<\/p>\n

Bhatt initially self-funded the company, providing about $10 million to get the venture started. He is the co-founder and former co-chief executive of Robinhood, a financial services company.<\/p>\n

In its announcement of the new funding round, Aetherflux said it has demonstrated power transmission in the lab as it works on a demo mission slated for launch in 2026. The new funding will allow the company \u201cto move even faster,\u201d it stated, but did not elaborate.<\/p>\n

Aetherflux has identified defense as an early market for its technology, offering a way to get power to forward operating bases. That was a concept endorsed by a report by the former National Security Space Office in 2007 on space-based solar power, although the Defense Department did not implement the recommendations of that report.<\/p>\n

The company said it secured government funding for a study related to its concept through the Defense Department\u2019s Operational Energy Capability Improvement Fund (OECIF). That funding, Aetherflux stated, would support \u201ca proof of concept demonstrating power transmission from LEO.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company did not disclose how much funding it received. According to the OECIF website<\/a>, the project is one of 45 approved for funding, but does not identify how much funding is available to the project or overall program.<\/p>\n

One of the investors in Aetherflux\u2019s Series A round acknowledged the major challenges involved with space-based solar power. \u201cOn the surface, the business he described seemed wildly complex \u2014 launching satellites with solar panels into orbit and wirelessly transmitting power around the globe \u2014 to say nothing of the regulatory and compliance challenges,\u201d Jan Hammer, a partner at Index Ventures, said in a statement about a conversation he had with Bhatt about the company.<\/p>\n

However, he said he was convinced that the company has thought through how to overcome those obstacles. \u201cThis is a big bet, but it\u2019s the kind of bet we like \u2014 on a founder we know and trust, tackling a problem that matters, with a plan grounded in reality. The future of energy is in space.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJeff Foust writes about space policy, commercial space, and related topics for SpaceNews.<\/p>\n

He earned a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor\u2019s degree with honors in geophysics and planetary science…\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Aetherflux plans to launch an initial demonstration satellite to test its space-based solar power technologies by 2026. Credit: Aetherflux WASHINGTON \u2014 A startup taking an alternative approach to space-based solar power has raised $50 million as it works towards a first demonstration mission next year. Aetherflux announced April 2 it raised a $50 million Series<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":846282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143721,2030],"tags":[143720,6628],"class_list":{"0":"post-846281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-aetherflux","8":"category-raises","9":"tag-aetherflux","10":"tag-raises"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}