Spherical, located in the ESA Business Incubation Centre in Noordwijk, has closed a pre-seed funding round for the development of its own chip, specially designed for the extreme conditions in space. Investments to date include UNIIQ, three business angels, venture capital investors Antler and Graduate Entrepreneur Fund, and a Eurostars grant. The investment was announced by Dutch Member of Parliament Pim van Strien at SBIC Noordwijk.
Conditions in space are extremely demanding, while maintenance is virtually impossible — it isn't easily possible to send a technician into space. It's therefore important that everything that is launched continues to work, which is why the production of extremely reliable parts has always been important. The problem is that these parts are also very expensive, and the business model has not changed since the space race in the 1960s.
Since the rise of the commercial space industry, the price of everything that is launched has been under increasing pressure. "The classic spaceflight microchips are far too expensive, so inferior chips are used." Spherical makes chips suitable for space at significantly lower cost by using smart architecture and modern design.
Spherical's funding round included investments from business angels, venture capital firms Antler and Graduate Entrepreneur Fund, a Rabobank loan, and a Eurostars grant. The company will produce its first space-designed chips and integrate them into systems for improved reliability.
"This funding allows us to fully fund the initial journey of our product development and team growth." — Thomas Parry, CEO of Spherical
The company expects to expand from 2 to 6 full-time employees while developing chip design tools for the aerospace market.