German rocket startup Isar Aerospace secures $174 million in financing
The German rocket startup Isar Aerospace announced today that it has obtained $174 million in new financing from a Miami-based investment firm.
This news report adds these details:
On 25 July 2025, Isar Aerospace announced that it had signed a €150 million convertible-bond agreement with Eldridge Industries. The instrument provides the company with funding in the short term, and the debt can later be converted into equity in the form of shares, typically at a pre-agreed valuation during a future financing round or an IPO.
That Isar needed to go to an American investment firm suggests there was a lack of interest in Europe to invest in this European rocket startup. The nature of the deal also suggests the possibility that some ownership rights will shift to Eldridge over time.
In March Isar first launch attempt of its Spectrum rocket from Norway’s Andoya spaceport failed 30 seconds after lift-off. It is building two more rockets, and will use this new capital to expand its production and launch facilities.
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The German rocket startup Isar Aerospace announced today that it has obtained $174 million in new financing from a Miami-based investment firm.
This news report adds these details:
On 25 July 2025, Isar Aerospace announced that it had signed a €150 million convertible-bond agreement with Eldridge Industries. The instrument provides the company with funding in the short term, and the debt can later be converted into equity in the form of shares, typically at a pre-agreed valuation during a future financing round or an IPO.
That Isar needed to go to an American investment firm suggests there was a lack of interest in Europe to invest in this European rocket startup. The nature of the deal also suggests the possibility that some ownership rights will shift to Eldridge over time.
In March Isar first launch attempt of its Spectrum rocket from Norway’s Andoya spaceport failed 30 seconds after lift-off. It is building two more rockets, and will use this new capital to expand its production and launch facilities.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Read the headline and thought, “Wow! That’s a pretty big deal for Europe!”
Then read the story, hit “Miami-based,” and it suddenly didn’t seem so exceptional. This a pretty typical deal size from American VC or equity finance sources for follow-on capital to an established start-up that has shown some moves. The recent Stoke Space deal is another example. The only unusual thing here is that the start-up in question is European rather than American.
One would think Europe would find it embarrassing that American financiers think more of European start-ups than European financiers do, but Europe seems to be entirely beyond embarrassment in so many ways these days that this likely barely registers.
Should part or all of this loan eventually convert to equity, one wonders whether partial American ownership will prove a minus-factor anent future competition for launch of European government payloads. One suspects the answer to this question will be ‘yes.’
The fact that the entity extending the loan is Miami-based – and not New York or Silicon Valley-based – also seems evidence of the growing competition Miami is providing to more established American financial centers.
That is good news.
There was an old movie called PRIME CUT that started Lee Marvin as a “fixer,” long before Ray Donovan.
The heavy in this movie was played by the late Gene Hackman, who–like most villains–had the best lines.
When asked why he moved his criminal empire to farm country-he replied about how New York was an “old dow” that had seen its best days.
There was more, but my memory is failing.
Old sow