TerraSpark receives 5 million euros in financing

The European start-up TerraSpark has closed a pre-seed financing round of more than five million euros. The company is working on one of the most ambitious energy visions of our time: solar energy from space.

Investors include Daphni, the investor group better ventures and the Hans(wo)men Group. The capital is to flow into the further development of the technology as well as initial pilot projects and live tests.

Europe's energy problem is getting worse

The financing comes at a time when Europe's energy infrastructure is under increasing pressure. Large-scale power outages, such as those recently experienced in Spain and Portugal, highlight the vulnerability of existing grids. At the same time, demand for electricity is rising rapidly, particularly due to energy-intensive applications such as data centers and artificial intelligence.

Structural problems also remain unresolved. Even where renewable energy is available in abundance, there is often a lack of efficient transmission to the consumer. In remote regions, expensive alternatives such as diesel generators also drive up costs significantly.

Solar energy from orbit as a solution?

In space, solar energy is available almost constantly, regardless of the time of day, weather or geographical restrictions. The concept of space-based solar energy has been known for decades, but only recent advances have made it realistically feasible. Falling launch costs, advances in satellite production and developments in orbital robotics are opening up new possibilities for economic use.

Gradual implementation instead of a "moonshot"

Instead of directly building large-scale systems in space, TerraSpark is taking a pragmatic approach: the company is initially focusing on the commercialization of radio-based wireless energy transmission on Earth.

The aim is to test safety, efficiency and regulatory requirements under real conditions. At the same time, the company is preparing the first pilot applications. This is seen as an important intermediate step before the technology is transferred to orbit.

In the long term, TerraSpark:

• first demonstration projects in the coming months
• an orbital technology demonstrator by 2027
• first space-to-earth energy transmission from 2028

TerraSpark is backed by a team with experience in space travel, technology development and scaling:

CEO Jasper Deprez is a serial founder and previously built an HR tech company with global clients. CTO Dr. Sanjay Vijendran was responsible for the Solaris program for space-based solar energy at the European Space Agency. COO Matthias Laug brings extensive experience in building scalable platforms as co-founder of Lieferando and Tier Mobility.

Big vision, growing investor interest

Investors see TerraSpark as a rare combination of technical depth and implementation expertise. Especially in an area such as space-based energy, which has long been considered a vision of the future, a step-by-step, industry-oriented approach is becoming increasingly important. If the technology is successfully scaled up, it could not only open up new energy sources, but also provide global, low-loss availability of clean energy.

TerraSpark is still in its infancy. But with the current financing, the company is taking a decisive step from vision to practical implementation. The central question remains: Can solar energy from space actually become a viable energy infrastructure?