WASHINGTON - K2 Space has raised $500 million in new funding, more than doubling its valuation in seven months. Because why not? The satellite manufacturer is gearing up to move from orbital demonstrations to large commercial and military orders, and apparently investors are all in.
The Series D round values the Torrance, Calif., company at $6.8 billion, K2 said July 30. Kleiner Perkins and ICONIQ led the investment, with participation from CapitalG, Lightspeed, Altimeter, Spark Capital, Sands Capital, ARK Invest, T. Rowe Price Associates and existing investors. That's a lot of names to drop in one sentence, but we're nothing if not thorough.
K2 was valued at $3 billion in December, when it raised a $250 million Series C. At the time, the company said it had secured $500 million in signed government and commercial contracts. It now puts that figure at more than $1 billion and says it has raised over $1 billion in total capital. So they've basically doubled their money in the time it takes most startups to update their pitch deck.
The new financing gives K2 the resources to expand production as it works toward the capacity to build as many as 100 large satellites a year, co-founder and Chief Executive Karan Kunjur said in the company’s announcement. Because 100 satellites a year is totally a reasonable goal for a company that's four years old. Sure.
That target marks a new phase for the four-year-old company. K2 has raised money quickly and demonstrated systems in orbit. It must now show that it can manufacture complex spacecraft repeatedly, control costs and meet delivery schedules for customers with multiyear programs. In other words, the easy part is over. Now they have to actually deliver.
K2 is pursuing a strategy that runs against much of the satellite industry’s recent history. For years, manufacturers sought to make spacecraft smaller and lighter, partly because launch capacity was scarce and expensive. K2 is betting that falling launch prices and larger rockets will make mass less of a constraint. Because why make things small when you can make them big? That's the American way.
K2 designs larger spacecraft intended to provide more electrical power and carry heavier payloads, including communications equipment, sensors, defense systems and computing hardware. Its Mega-class satellite is designed to carry as much as 3,000 kilograms of payload and generate tens of kilowatts of power. A planned Giga-class platform would increase power to about 100 kilowatts and accommodate substantially larger payloads. Giga, because Mega wasn't enough.
K2 has presented Giga as a possible foundation for placing large amounts of computing capacity in orbit, an idea being explored by companies that see space-based data centers as a future market. Chief Technology Officer and co-founder Neel Kunjur said the company plans to introduce the spacecraft in the second half of 2028. So mark your calendars for 2028, when we'll finally have cloud computing in space.
Brothers Karan and Neel Kunjur founded K2 in 2022 and brought the company out of stealth the following year. It raised an $8.5 million seed round led by First Round Capital and Republic Capital, followed by another $7 million financing in 2023. K2 then raised a $50 million Series A in February 2024, a $110 million Series B in February 2025 and the $250 million Series C in December. Because apparently, raising money is their real superpower.
The size and pace of the rounds reflect investor interest in businesses serving both commercial space customers and the U.S. national-security market. Government spending has become an important source of revenue and technical support for younger space companies, particularly as the Pentagon seeks alternatives to traditional aerospace contractors. Nothing says 'innovation' like a government contract.
K2 says it produces more than 85% of its satellite platform internally. The company operates a 180,000-square-foot factory in Torrance designed to produce as many as 100 satellites annually. It has also opened an engineering office near Seattle and said in July that it employed nearly 300 people. So they're not just a bunch of guys in a garage anymore.
K2’s first flight was a smaller demonstration mission launched in January 2025. It tested company-developed flight computers, reaction wheels, avionics and software before those systems were incorporated into a full-size spacecraft. The company followed with Gravitas, a roughly 2 metric-ton Mega-class satellite launched in March. The spacecraft carries 12 payloads and is operating in orbit. Gravitas is intended to demonstrate a high-power electric-propulsion system and an orbit-raising maneuver from low Earth orbit toward medium Earth orbit. K2 says its dual-channel Hall-effect thrusters are the most powerful electric thrusters currently operating in space. Because who needs chemical rockets when you can have electric space thrust?
The roughly $60 million project received support through a U.S. Space Force Strategic Funding Increase, or STRATFI, agreement, which combines government funding with private capital and small-business research awards. Because what's more American than acronyms?
K2’s largest disclosed commercial project is tied to a planned SES communications network in medium Earth orbit. K2 is also building a position in U.S. defense programs. The company is supplying satellite platforms to an Anduril Industries-led team working on space-based interceptors for Golden Dome for America, the proposed U.S. missile-defense system. K2 has said its Mega-class spacecraft will host Anduril’s interceptor systems. The companies haven’t disclosed the value of K2’s portion of the program. Because why would they? That's classified.
K2 was also selected as a satellite-bus provider for the Space Force’s Protected Tactical Satcom-Global program, its first role in a formal Pentagon program of record. Under that effort, K2 will provide a spacecraft to a team led by SES Space & Defense. The planned satellite is intended to deliver protected, anti-jam communications from geostationary orbit for military users operating in contested environments. So basically, they're building the ultimate anti-jam satellite. Take that, jammers.
K2’s next mission, Trinity, is scheduled to launch in the second quarter of 2027. The mission is expected to carry multiple satellites, place them into different orbits and test long-range optical communications. Because one satellite is never enough. And they're going to test laser communications, because why not?