Tag: Tim Draper

Aquarian Space Raises Seed Round for Deep Space Communications Network

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BOULDER, Colo. (Aquarian Space PR) — Aquarian Space, the world’s first high data rate internet service for the Solar System, announced today they have successfully raised a seed round led by notable Draper Associates, a leader in early-stage venture capital having funded companies such as SpaceX, Tesla and Coinbase. This raise will accelerate development plans for Aquarian Space’s SOLNETTM, which will offer critical high-speed internet and communications for beyond-Earth operations.

High-speed internet drives communication on Earth; however, this fast and reliable network ends with the geostationary orbit. Above Earth’s orbit, current communication is reliant on technology dating back to the 1960’s, which makes downloading lunar and deep space data an extremely slow process. With the lunar economy in fast development, driven by NASA’s Artemis program, a lack of high-speed communication poses a serious bottleneck for lunar operations and future Mars exploration.

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Draper Associates & ATX Venture Partners Lead Slingshot Aerospace’s Oversubscribed $25 Million Series A-1 Funding Round

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AUSTIN, Texas/EL SEGUNDO, Calif., March 10, 2022 (Slingshot Aerospace PR) — Slingshot Aerospace, Inc., a company building world-class space simulation and analytics products to accelerate space sustainability, announced today that it has raised $25 million in Series A-1 funds. The new money is in addition to the $9.6 million Series A funds raised in October 2020, bringing the total raised for the A and A-1 rounds to $34.6 million to date.

The oversubscribed A-1 round was co-led by Draper Associates, the global venture capital firm of prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper, and ATX Venture Partners. Additional participation in the round included Edison Partners, Embedded Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, Lockheed Martin Ventures, and more. Participation from previous investors also included Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Fund, Okapi Venture Capital and others. Since inception in July 2017, Slingshot Aerospace has raised $42 million in funding. 

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Jurvetson to Give Tour of Space Artifact Collection — for a Price

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Steve Jurvetson
Steve Jurvetson

SpaceX investor Steve Jurvetson will give one lucky person a tour of his personal collection of space artifacts — if the price is right.

All you have to do is go to Tourwithsteve.com and making the winning bid. According to the website:

“The highest bid will help fund a scholarship for a space entrepreneur to attend Draper University and support a team on a wilderness survival mission.”

So, what is Draper University? It’s actually known as the Draper University of Heroes and was created by one of Jurvetson’s venture capital partners at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Here’s the description from its website:

“Located in Silicon Valley, Draper University of Heroes is the brainchild of free-spirited venture capitalist Tim Draper, aka ‘The Riskmaster’. We are an unconventional world-class boarding school for the brightest young entrepreneurs from around the world. We built this school because the world needs more heroes.”

Yes. the world certainly needs more of them. And, apparently, now you can now get a degree in heroism. Who knew?

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