Structural test model of Nyx. Click for original image.

France’s capsule startup The Exploration Company has now raised an additional $450 million in new investment capital, bringing its total cash on hand to $680 million.

The Exploration Company (TEC), a European space company scaling globally, today announced a $450 million Series C financing, the largest-ever Series C announced by a European space company. It also marks the largest funding round ever secured by an EU-headquartered company led by a female founder and CEO. The round is co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners, Atomico, and the Scaleup Europe Fund, managed by EQT, with participation from TEC’s existing European backers including Balderton, Plural, Cherry and Red River West.

The financing expands TEC’s investor base across both sides of the Atlantic while maintaining a strong European foundation, bringing long-term capital behind a shared objective: to scale reusable space transportation platforms capable of serving customers and institutions across borders. Bessemer’s Alex Ferrara will join the TEC board of directors. The financing brings TEC’s total funding secured to date to approximately $680 million.

The company will use this money to accelerate construction of both its Nyx cargo capsule as well as a new rocket engine, dubbed Storm. The press release notes that they are now beginning construction on the flight model of Nyx, with a 2028 target date for its first orbital launch. Though its first flight is hoping to dock with ISS, the company is very clearly marketing that capsule for use by the five American space stations presently in development. In fact, company officials say they already signed $800 million in cargo contracts, 90% of which are with the commercial space station companies Axiom Space, Vast, and Starlab, with the rest government contracts. As part of that effort, TEC has been expanding its U.S. operations, opening an American subsidiary in July.