Zurich, Switzerland — October 28, 2025 — PAVE Space, a developer of hybrid propulsion systems for orbital logistics, today announced the closing of a EUR 4.5 million seed round led by Visionaries Club. The funding will accelerate completion of PAVE Space's propulsion platform and fund the company's first commercial demonstration mission, scheduled for Q3 2026.
About the Round
The seed round was led by Visionaries Club, the Berlin-based venture capital firm known for backing deep tech founders across Europe. Visionaries Club has previously invested in a range of hardware-intensive startups and brings operational experience in deep tech company building that complements PAVE Space's engineering team.
"The orbital transfer problem is one of the most consequential infrastructure challenges in the new space economy," said a partner at Visionaries Club. "PAVE Space has assembled a world-class propulsion team and a technically credible path to commercial service. We are excited to support Julie and the team as they build the transfer infrastructure the industry needs."
How the Funding Will Be Used
PAVE Space will deploy the EUR 4.5 million across three primary initiatives over the next 18 months. First, the company will complete qualification testing of its hybrid propulsion thruster, including full-duration burn tests at the new Zurich Technopark lab and thermal vacuum chamber testing at a partner facility. Second, the team will build and test the flight unit for the 2026 demonstration mission, integrating the propulsion system with the mission computer, power electronics, and ground communications package. Third, PAVE Space will expand its engineering team with four additional hires across propulsion, systems engineering, and mission operations.
"This funding gives us the runway to prove our technology in orbit and sign our first commercial service contracts," said Julie Bohning, CEO and Co-Founder of PAVE Space. "Visionaries Club's network and operational support will be invaluable as we move from lab to launch."
The PAVE Space Technology
PAVE Space's hybrid propulsion architecture combines chemical propulsion for rapid orbit-raising manoeuvres with continuous electric propulsion for efficient circularisation and fine-tuning. The system targets the medium-speed transfer segment: missions that need to complete in days to weeks rather than months, but cannot afford the propellant mass of pure chemical systems.
The platform is designed for payloads in the 100–1,500 kg range and can execute transfers across LEO altitude bands, from LEO to medium Earth orbit (MEO), and to highly elliptical orbits used by scientific and communications missions. The modular design allows the propulsion system to be integrated with third-party spacecraft buses or deployed as a standalone transfer vehicle.
Market Context
The seed round comes amid growing investor interest in the in-space transportation segment. Several competitors, including Momentus Space (US), D-Orbit (Italy), and Exolaunch (Germany), have validated commercial demand for orbital transfer services, but the market remains early-stage with significant room for technology differentiation. PAVE Space's hybrid approach targets a performance gap between these providers' electric-only systems and the higher-cost chemical transfer stages used for GEO missions.
The company's Zurich base provides access to Switzerland's deep aerospace engineering talent pool, proximity to ESA's ESTEC technical centre, and a growing European space startup ecosystem anchored by ETH Zurich's space systems group.
Next Milestones
Following the seed round close, PAVE Space's key milestones include: thruster qualification testing completion in Q1 2026, flight unit integration and system-level testing in Q2 2026, launch vehicle booking confirmation in Q2 2026, and the commercial demonstration mission in Q3 2026. The company is targeting commercial service launch in Q1 2027, with initial capacity of four to six transfer missions per year scaling to 15-20 missions per year by 2028.