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Fuse has come up with a mission patch for its program to back early-stage space ventures. (Fuse Graphic)
Seattle-area venture capital firm Fuse wants to light a spark for entrepreneurs focusing on the final frontier, and it’s willing to invest a million dollars to turn a good idea into a great startup.
The Fuse Space Program will focus on the Seattle space ecosystem in particular, said Brendan Wales, founding partner at the Bellevue, Wash.-based firm.
“There’s going to be a huge funnel of people spinning out of Blue Origin and Starlink and SpaceX and Boeing that are going to go build these next-generation companies, and we want to be there for them,” Wales told GeekWire. “We want people to know that we’re there to back them at Day Zero.”
Fuse has already been there with financial backing for a couple of space ventures: Redmond, Wash.-based Lumen Orbit, which aims to put data centers in Earth orbit; and Colorado-based Quindar, which markets spacecraft management software. Wales said the CEOs of Lumen and Quindar will serve as “venture scouts” for the Fuse Space Program.
The basic idea is that Fuse will provide $1 million or more in pre-seed funding for promising space startups. Those investments will come in part from Fuse’s second venture fund, a $250 million chunk of capital that Fuse raised in 2023. “We imagine it’s going to be 10 companies in the next few years, because we’ll invest more over time,” Wales said.
Brendan Wales is a general partner at Fuse. (Fuse Photo)
Wales said he’s intrigued by ventures that facilitate space-based networking services. “We think there’s a ton of opportunity in and around performance and security, because you’re going to have important data up there, and you’ve got to make sure there are no issues,” he said.
But as far as he’s concerned, the sky’s the limit when it comes to startup opportunities in space — particularly once SpaceX’s Starship super-rocket enters commercial service. “It’s not like we’re seeing a lot there yet, but I do think space tourism is going to be a huge category,” Wales said.
Fuse’s founding partners are more familiar with the startup scene than the space scene, but the ideas that come in will be vetted by limited partners who specialize in the space industry.
Wales emphasized that the space venture program will focus on pre-seed funding rather than later-stage investments. “If we’re going to be there at Day Zero, which is our preference with the Fuse Space Program, the valuations aren’t going to be $50 million,” he said. “We want to be down there at the ground floor.”
Although Fuse is flexible when it comes to its portfolio’s geographical balance, Wales will be keeping an especially close eye on the Seattle space ecosystem.
“We are five minutes away from a city that designs and manufactures 80% of the world’s satellites, right? For us not to own that market of entrepreneurs is a missed opportunity,” he said. “We’re going to wake up every day so when people are spinning out of those companies, they call us. One day, maybe we can be perceived as the best investor in the world in space because of that advantage.”
If you’re an entrepreneur who’s putting together a team for a space startup, you can get more information about the Fuse Space Program by emailing Brendan Wales at brendan [at] fuse.vc or Fuse associate Nolan Van Nortwick at nolan [at] fuse.vc. Pitches can also be submitted online via Fuse’s website.
