Britain ‘still a player’ in space race despite Cornwall satellite launch failure, says fund boss
Britain continues to ‘weigh above its weight’ despite the failed satellite launch last month from Cornwall, the boss of a major space investment fund said yesterday.
Mark Boggett, chief executive of London-listed Seraphim Space, said the UK remained a global leader, attracting more investment in space projects than any other country except China and the United States. United.
And he said that while the failure to launch the Virgin Orbit satellite from Cornwall last month was a ‘mild setback’ for the industry, he believed there was still ‘significant dry power’ when it came to investment.
New frontier: Seraphim Space boss Mark Boggett says the UK attracts more investment in space projects than any other country except China and the US
Founded in 2016, Seraphim claims to invest “in the brightest minds and the smartest ideas” in the space industry.
It has 75 space technology companies in its portfolio, including quantum computing company Arqit Quantum, which itself went public in the United States in 2021.
In its latest industry health report, Seraphim said the number of start-ups attracting investment was 50% higher in the last three months of 2022 than in the same period a year earlier.
He said it showed “strong interest from entrepreneurs and investors in building new space businesses in 2022.”
But Seraphim said there was less investment in big “growth” companies, with deal values falling 34% to £999million.
The space industry supports nearly 50,000 jobs in the UK. It generated £16.4 billion in revenue in 2020, a third of which is for export.
