Reflex Aerospace co-founders Walter Ballheimer, left, and Alexander Genzel, right, with the company’s first satellite, SIGI. Photo: Reflex Aerospace

Reflex Aerospace, a German satellite manufacturer, has closed one of the largest Series A funding rounds in the European space arena to date. It closed a Series A 50 million euro ($57.6 million), led by Human Element together with Alpine Space Ventures, Bayern Kapital, HTGF, Renovatio Financial Investments, as well as additional German and European investors. The company announced the funding round on Nov. 4.

Reflex Aerospace will now look to accelerate the development, production, and deployment of sovereign satellite constellations providing optical, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), space domain awareness (SDA), and signal intelligence (SIGINT) capabilities. Part of the financing round will be used to expand existing manufacturing capacity in Bavaria to manufacture satellite constellations for intelligence and communications purposes. Reflex Aerospace aims to have all capabilities ready for deployment and demonstrated in orbit by 2027.

The company’s first remote sensing satellite reached orbit in January 2025.

“While Europe is rebuilding its sovereign defense capabilities, Reflex is transforming how satellites are built, designing payload-centric buses that can be rapidly manufactured without costly mega-factories. Their approach delivers the flexibility and speed needed to meet the growing ISR demand across Germany and allied markets,” Christian Sullivan, managing partner of Human Element, said in a statement.

This comes after Germany recently announced plans to invest 35 billion euro ($41 billion) in space defense capabilities by 2030, with Defense Minister Boris Pistoriu saying that Germany will invest a resilient space structure consisting of satellite constellations, ground stations, secure launch capabilities, and services for reconnaissance, communication, and protection.