The Exploration Company

Company research

Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals

Updated Aug 5, 2026

Overview

The Exploration Company (TEC) is a European space-transportation company building reusable, refillable spacecraft and related propulsion systems to make access to orbit more affordable, modular and sustainable. Its commercial focus is cargo transportation for space stations, with eventual crew and lunar applications.

Primary product

Nyx: a modular, reusable orbital capsule designed to carry cargo to and from low Earth orbit and, later, cislunar destinations; TEC is also developing the Storm high-thrust staged-combustion rocket engine.

Founded

2021

Headquarters

Munich/Gauting, Bavaria, Germany

Team size

450+ (company website; third-party LinkedIn estimate 407)

Work style

Hybrid

Industry

Aerospace

Sub-industry

Space transportation, reusable spacecraft and aerospace component manufacturing

Offices

Munich/Gauting, Germany (HQ)

Bordeaux/Le Haillan, France

Turin, Italy

Houston, Texas, United States

Dubai, UAE

Abu Dhabi, UAE

Luxembourg

Spain (operating presence)

Business model

Commercial cargo transportation to space stations

Spacecraft development, manufacturing and operations

Government and space-agency contracts

Technology/platform and mission services

Future crew and cislunar transportation

Funding

Stage

Late-stage venture / Series B; reportedly in discussions for a new 2026 round, not closed as of 2026-08-05

Total raised

$230M

Latest round

Series B · Nov 2024

Latest amount

$160M

Series B

Nov 2024 · Balderton Capital and Plural

$160M

Series A

Feb 2023 · Red River West

$44M

Seed

Nov 2021 · Promus Ventures

$6M

People & investors

Leadership

Hélène Huby

Founder & CEO

Antoine Mondésert

Chief Financial Officer

Jim Free

Chief Technology Officer

Jon Reijneveld

Co-Founder & Engineering

Artur Koop

Co-Founder & Lead Operations

Sebastien Reichstadt

Co-Founder & Head of Propulsion

Dana Baki

Commercial & MENA

Eric Miquel

Production

Jenny Dreier

Chief of Staff

Najwa Naimy

Nyx Program

Nils Bernhardt

Digital

Sarah Fern

People

Olivier de la Bourdonnaye

Future Programs

Founders

Pierre Vinet

Co-Founder

Investors

Balderton Capital

Bayern Kapital

Bessemer Venture Partners

Bpifrance

Cherry Ventures

DeepTech & Climate Fonds

EQT Ventures

French Tech Souveraineté

Work & culture

Mission-driven, international and engineering-led; the company describes its values as mission, vision, integrity, teamwork and excellence, and emphasizes agile decision-making, openness, collaboration and democratizing access to space.

Work style

Hybrid

Visa sponsorship

Limited

Compensation

Public job listings show indicative ranges including approximately €65,000–€82,500 for some Munich software roles and $85,000–$170,000 for some Houston roles; compensation varies by location and role. No company-wide pay bands or equity policy were found.

Benefits

Visa and work-permit assistance where applicable

Relocation support

Role-dependent remote work and hybrid flexibility

Internal mobility and career-growth opportunities

Diversity and inclusion commitment

Product & market

Pricing

No public standard price list; primarily bespoke contract pricing for cargo missions, government studies and spacecraft/mission services.

Differentiators

—European-built alternative to U.S.-dominated space-station cargo transportation
—Reusable and refillable spacecraft architecture
—Modular Nyx family intended for LEO, lunar and future crew missions
—In-house development of spacecraft, propulsion and software
—Open interfaces/software positioning for external applications
—Commercial backlog alongside agency contracts
—Pan-European engineering and manufacturing footprint

Technology

Nyx reusable spacecraft

In-space refueling

Autonomous docking

Open-source spacecraft operating system/open interfaces

Storm staged-combustion rocket engine

Python

C++

Rust

FastAPI

Node.js

MySQL

SQLAlchemy

Redis

AWS

Docker

Kubernetes/Helm

Prometheus

Grafana

MATLAB

Simulink

Customers

Axiom Space

Vast Space

Starlab Space

European Space Agency

NASA-related programs and partners

Commercial space-station operators and space-agency payload customers

Competitors

SpaceX Dragon

Sierra Space Dream Chaser

Northrop Grumman Cygnus

Axiom Space

Rocket Lab

Firefly Aerospace

Momentus

Scale & contact

Estimated revenue

Approximately $1M–$10M; a LinkedIn company-data estimate gives $2.5M annual revenue. Treat as an unverified third-party estimate, not reported financials.

Signals & risks

Other

Jun 2025

Mission Possible, a subscale demonstrator, reached orbit and survived reentry but lost contact shortly before planned splashdown; the company characterized the mission as a partial success.

Source

Other

Jul 2026

Reports said TEC was in talks to raise at least $300 million at roughly a $2 billion valuation; the financing was not finalized and could still change or fail to close.

Source

Latest news

Bessemer, Atomico in talks to lead The Exploration Company funding at $2bn valuation

Sifted · Jul 2026

Reported advanced discussions for a new round potentially valuing TEC at about $2 billion; terms were not final as of publication.

The Exploration Company in talks to raise $300M at a $2B valuation

The Next Web · Jul 2026

Reported possible $300 million financing, discussed customers, backlog and the partial outcome of the 2025 Mission Possible test.

After a partly successful test flight, European firm eyes space station mission

Ars Technica · Jul 2025

Examined the Mission Possible test and TEC’s plan to target a Nyx mission to the ISS as early as 2028.

The Exploration Company raises $160 million for Nyx cargo vehicle

SpaceNews · Nov 2024

Reported the Series B, ESA work and announced commercial relationships with Axiom, Starlab and Vast.

The Exploration Company raises $160M to build Europe’s answer to SpaceX Dragon

TechCrunch · Nov 2024

Covered the $160 million Series B, Nyx development, commercial contracts and reported backlog.

Open Positions

111 jobs at The Exploration Company

Combustion Engineer

On-site

US & Future Programs

Bordeaux, France

1d ago

On-site

Full-time