Celebrating five years of industry-defining research.
The Space Investment Quarterly has been the source of record for private market equity investment activity and startup trends in the Space Economy since 2017, providing high-quality data and insights that connect the dots between governments, enterprises, and startups. Our latest Q4 2022 Space Investment Quarterly report from Space Capital marks five years of publishing this industry-defining research. This information is always available for free on our website at www.spacecapital.com/quarterly.
Data from our report has guided commercial space investment decisions and policy, cited on multiple occasions by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and by the Vice President of the United States. Coverage of the most recent Q4 2022 report includes TechCrunch, Forbes, Financial Times, CNBC, Ars Technica, Reuters, WaPo, Axios, Forbes, and more.
We originally launched the Space Investment Quarterly with the aim of uncovering insights about investing in the Space Economy. While several other organizations report publicly available data, our data is unique in that it also includes anonymized and aggregated info from our own due diligence processes. As market leaders in this category, that means we have the most comprehensive dataset available.
Additionally, the framework for this report is based on The GPS Playbook, co-authored by Space Capital and Silicon Valley Bank, which explores how a space-based technology generated trillions of dollars in economic value and some of the largest venture outcomes. Our firm’s investment thesis emphasizes how the history of GPS provides us with a framework for understanding how space-based technology has become a platform for innovation on a global scale – specifically, the development of technology layers on top of space-based infrastructure and the distribution of data for mass adoption, which unlocks thousands of unique applications.
Based on this understanding, beginning in Q1 2020, we expanded the report beyond just rockets and satellite hardware, incorporating companies that are building upon space-based Infrastructure, creating new technology layers that provide access through Distribution and unlocking specialized end-user Applications. For the first time, our report provided a holistic view of capital flows into the Space Economy. For too long space Infrastructure has been designed and built in a vacuum, absent of market forces.
Why should we invest in space exploration?
We believe that the future is an open architecture, guided by market demand, to build assets that help us respond to our most pressing global challenges.
Diving deeper, in Q4 2020 we expanded the publication beyond a static report and made the underlying data available in an interactive format on our website. Interested parties and potential space investment partners can now drill into each of the defined technology stacks, double-click on certain annual data, or zoom into specific country trends.
The most recent Q4 2022 Space Investment Quarterly showed that there has now been $272.3B of equity investment into 1,791 unique companies in the Space Economy over the past decade. Coming off a record $47.4B invested 2021, the Space Economy saw private market investment decline by 58% in 2022 due to the most difficult investment environment since the Great Recession 15 years ago.
Tight capital markets have put a premium on sound business models and revenue, including government contracts. And many leading space companies are actively prioritizing these fundamentals. In Q4 SpaceX unveiled Starshield, a business through which it will cater to the national security needs of government clients. National Security Space is now one of the fastest growing areas of the DoD budget and the 2023 Space Force budget of $26B ($1.7B more than requested) is now larger than that of NASA’s ($25B), for the first time.
Space technologies are already the “invisible backbone” of the world’s largest industries and they are playing an increasingly critical role in the global economy. Record revenues for Earth imaging companies in 2022 are demonstrating how some segments of the Space Economy are countercyclical and resilient to macro market pressures.
The Space Economy experienced significant growth over the past decade – solidifying its role as supranational infrastructure – and there is no putting that genie back in the bottle. Despite the challenges caused by macro market headwinds, we’ve never been more bullish on space as an investment thesis.
Lastly, as we celebrate five years of industry-defining research, we’re proud to announce The Space Economy: Capitalize on the Greatest Business Opportunity of Our Lifetime, published by Wiley and available this April. This comprehensive guidebook to the Space Economy will help investors, entrepreneurs, and aspiring professionals understand the impact of space-based technologies on enterprise, government, and consumer markets today and for decades to come. Pre-order today at: thespaceeconomy.com
