- Series B Funding for Varda Space, raised $90M for transition to commercial space activities.
- Future Engineering and Expansion, engineering enhancements for on-board pharmaceutical reactors.
- Successful first mission, emphasizes space crystallization research for drug development.
Varda Space Industries originated after its product line prospered after its usual drug manufacturing capsule. Varda's Series B round of equity funding raising $90M is a major catalyst of Varda's business transition into a full-fledged commercial space activities supplier with a growing customer portfolio.
Varda, the private space company, was established in 2021 by the two entrepreneurs, Delian Asparouhov and Will Bruey to bring commercial pharmaceutical crystals research conducted under microgravity by the engineers of the ISS.
The Varda's first mission is not the very first time when drugs crystallized in space, but it implies the egregious crucial step to reach their goal.
Such a ride has proven to emphasize, that Varda Space Industry Development Corp. (Varda) benefited from some rideshare launch platforms and satellite-bus production.
The successful first flight under their belt, for which reentry capsule functioning was exceptionally good, and HIV medicine re-formulation was vital for advancement.
The company also focuses on fasting its engineering for the on-board pharmaceutical reactor improvement as well. On the other hand, only one drug-protein was bundled together in the initial mission.
In the future, Varda is going to use multiple processing methods and enzyme variants to ensure different drugs are delivered together. The scenarios of future tasks may include a reactor with a larger size for the production of drugs that are integrated into a form that requires more of a substrate (like additives in mass production processes).
The recent seed round was managed by Caffeinated Capital, with partial and full contributions from Lux Capital, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, and Khosla Ventures.
Additionally, after raising $90 million in the first round, Varda has secured another $55 million in the second round which amounts to a total of $145 million.
Edited by Shruti Thapa