French startup OsmosX has secured more than €2 million in new funding to continue the development of its multi-use space tug.
The funding round was led by venture capital firms Expansion and Rymdkapital and included contributions from “individual investors.” According to the official announcement, the funding will be used to finance research and development costs as the company prepares to launch an initial demonstrator mission by 2025.
“With this capital injection, we will be able to accelerate the development of our space propulsion technology, paving the way for new applications such as interplanetary transport and orbital debris cleanup,” said OsmosX CEO Matthieu Cavellier in a statement.
Rennes-based OsmosX was founded in late 2022 with the goal of developing a multi-use spacecraft capable of last-mile delivery, orbital repositioning and refueling, space debris mitigation, and interplanetary payload transportation. While this is not in itself unusual, some of the company’s specific claims are more sensational.
According to the OsmosX website, the company will utilize propulsion technology that has been in development for over 30 years. This propulsion system will offer tunable thrust of between 1 and 100 newtons and have a specific impulse (ISP) greater than 200,000 seconds. The claimed ISP may be a typo on the website, but if it’s not, the company appears to be working on the most efficient propulsion system in the world by some margin.
Another sensational claim made by the company is related to its space debris mitigation system. According to OsmosX, its solution would not require any contact with the target. An animation accompanying this description appears to show the use of a specialized thruster to push debris toward Earth’s atmosphere.
According to the company’s LinkedIn page, OsmosX currently has a staff of six people. The company’s CEO, Matthieu Cavellier, does, however, split his time between two other companies, serving as CEO of Omega Physics and Managing Director of Pantechnik. According to the funding announcement, the company also includes former ESA director general Jean-Jacques Dordain, who is a shareholder and serves as chairman of OsmosX’s non-executive supervisory board.
Neither Expansion nor Rymdkapital are new to the industry, with both firms primarily investing in space companies. It’s unclear whether this is a gamble for the pair or if there is non-public information that they’re privy to that may explain how OsmosX has managed to secure over €2 million in funding.
