A Swiss startup created under EPFL’s student rocket program, which is developing Europe’s first student-made reusable rocket, has raised one of the largest seed rounds ever in the European space. led the Visionaries Club and Creandum; Lombard Odier, Atlantic Labs and Sistafund also participated.
The satellite life cycle has structural inefficiencies. Launch vehicles deliver payloads to low Earth orbit because it is the cheapest and easiest destination to reach.
But satellites that operate global communications, navigation and defense intelligence systems do their work in higher orbits, geostationary, mid-Earth orbits, and sometimes even on the Moon.
Moving from a launch orbit to a working orbit is a “last mile logistics in space” problem, which today is solved by an on-board electric motor that burns slowly and precisely over six to twelve months.
PAVE SpaceFounded in 2024 in Rennes, Switzerland, the startup is building a fleet of orbital transfer vehicles designed to make the trip in less than 24 hours.
💜 of EU technology
The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise founder Boris and some questionable AI art. Free in your inbox every week. Register now!
PAVE has raised $40 million in funding largest seed cycles In European space history managed by Visionaries Club and Creandum with participation from Lombard Odier Investment Managers, Atlantic Labs, Sistafund, b2venture, ACE Investment Partners, Ilavaska Vuillermoz Capital and Pareto & Motier Ventures.
The capital will finance hardware development towards on-orbit demonstration.
The company was founded in November 2018 by CEO Julie Böhning and Jérémy Marciacq, along with Simon Both, the same three engineers who started the Gruyère Space Program at EPFL.
GSP was a student body that set an ambitious goal: to design and fly a reusable, vertical-landing liquid-propellant rocket on a student budget. By October 2024, their demonstrator, the 2.45-meter bipropellant VTVL rocket Colibri, had completed 53 flights, including a 105-meter free flight, with a budget of about CHF 250,000.
It was the first reusable VTVL rocket built and flown by a student team. When the program ended, the founders leveraged the technology and expertise at PAVE Space.
The commercial rationale for rapid orbital transfer is simple, but the urgency is growing. More than 12,000 active satellites now in orbit, thousands are launched every year.
Operators whose assets are stuck in transit orbit for six months are unable to serve customers, lose revenue, and face complex risks from destruction and interference.
For defense customers, the timeline challenge is even more acute: the ability to rapidly deploy a satellite into a new orbit in response to a threat is a capability that current electric propulsion cannot deliver.
PAVE’s OTVs use a storable bipropellant engine rather than cryogenic propellants, which vaporize at room temperature and make long orbital tours impossible.
TA slightly lower specific impulse in return for indefinite storage life and operational flexibility is the defining technical choice behind the vehicle’s design.
The dual purpose trade and defense market is the clearest analogue in the European space: Launch providers like Arianespace and RocketLab, and in-space servicing companies such as D-Orbit and Exotrail have found that European defense procurement is accelerated when there is a viable domestic alternative to US or Chinese systems.
PAVE makes the same bet earlier, in the OTV layer.
