Robert Goodyear

Xona Space Systems has secured a landmark $92M Series B funding round, led by Craft Ventures with continued support from Seraphim Space and other top investors. This brings Xona’s total funding to over $150M as they accelerate their mission to rebuild global navigation with their groundbreaking Pulsar constellation in Low Earth Orbit. Earlier this month, Xona successfully launched Pulsar-0, their first production-class satellite, a huge milestone on the path from R&D to full commercial deployment. Pulsar’s 100x stronger, encrypted signals with centimetre-level precision will transform autonomy, critical infrastructure, defense, and more. Xona’s Pulsar constellation is changing the game with a commercial-grade satellite navigation system built in low Earth orbit that offers: 🛰️ 100x stronger signals for reliable coverage in urban canyons, under dense foliage, and indoors 🛰️Centimeter-level precision critical for self-driving vehicles, robotics, precision agriculture, and augmented reality 🛰️Built-in encryption and signal authentication to protect against spoofing and interference Huge congratulations to Brian Manning and the entire Xona team on this incredible achievement. We’re proud to continue supporting their journey! #SpaceTech #Navigation #LEO #Investment #Innovation #Seraphim #XonaSpaceSystems

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Generation Space returns this Thursday — and the first episode sets the tone perfectly. Leah Martin is joined by Seraphim’s Maureen Haverty and one of the leading voices in SpaceTech, Voyager Technologies CEO Dylan Taylor. Together, they unpack the commercial realities of operating in space — and what it really takes to scale viable business models off-world. Timely insights for investors tracking the continued growth of the #SpaceTech sector. 🎙️ Episode live from 12:00 PM BST this Thursday: https://lnkd.in/eeU4dvx9 #VentureCapital #CommercialSpace #NewSpaceEconomy #GenerationSpace

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Trying something new this week - a studio industry roundup with my take on what matters. The studio model is no longer an experiment being run in a handful of places. It is infrastructure being built across geographies, sectors, and institutional types. 5️⃣ stories from the past seven days:  1️⃣ OSS Ventures hit a EUR 40M first close on a EUR 75M follow-on fund -- capital raised specifically to back the 30 companies their studio created since 2019. The "build then fund" lifecycle is maturing. B'More Venture Studio with a similar thesis: studio operations first, then dedicated capital to scale what's working.  2️⃣ Delta40 raised $20M from 54 investors across 13 countries to launch Africa's first integrated venture studio and fund. The LP base is almost entirely DFIs and foundations. Impact capital is discovering the studio model as a deployment vehicle, something I seeing across geographies (conversations with Michael Bob Starr and Damias McDonald this week alone) 3️⃣ Start Holdings launched Start.vc out of NYC and Barcelona after a $200M EV infrastructure exit. Another operator-turned-studio-founder. This is the pattern we see quite often in our work at 9point8 -- experienced operators like Jason Goldsmith who've built and exited deciding the studio model is how they want to build next.  4️⃣ UBC HATCH admitted 10 new deep-tech spinouts for Winter 2026 -- mostly climate tech. University venture builders are quietly becoming one of the fastest-growing segments. Follow Evan Allen and Jaimie Testai to keep track of its rapid evolution.  5️⃣ The INVEST Act is advancing through the Senate. If passed, it expands qualifying VC fund size from $10M to $50M and loosens general solicitation rules for accelerator and university events. For studio-funds -- and for folks in the The Venture Studio Forum community tracking policy -- this could be the most significant capital formation legislation since the JOBS Act. If this roundup format is useful, I'll keep it going. What other noteworthy news hit your desk this week, and what stood out to you?

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🚨NEW EPISODE: Recorded live at FUTURE TITANS 2026 - Jeff Perry of Carta sat down with the iconic Seth Levine, co-founder of Foundry. Seth has been in venture for 25 years, built Foundry from scratch as an emerging manager himself, and has backed about 50 emerging manager funds through his fund of funds. He has genuinely seen every side of this table. They went deep on building Foundry, why VCs are in the influence business, not the decision business, and why the concentration problem in venture is not only bad for LPs, but also for the innovation ecosystem overall. And why Seth's new book, Capital Evolution, is so important for the future of America. 🎧 Links to listen... Apple: https://lnkd.in/ehQUQ2EM Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eU4FExpg

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Here's a list of the NewSpace start-ups that are actually going to make it. I was speaking to the COO of a 500+ headcount start-up that IPO'd in the last couple of years. He asked my opinions on the current Space market: whether I was backing Comms, or EO, or ISAM, or Launch, or Manufacturers, etc. And the official list of companies that I am backing is as follows: 1. Those that can execute well. That's it. That's the whole list. The Space industry as a whole is booming. It's not about what market or submarket is currently outperforming the rest. But about which companies are dominating their particular use case. There's practically no difference between AST SpaceMobile and Lynk Global. Both companies were founded in 2017. Both companies have the same mission: connecting people in mobile dead zones. And both companies are building their own D2D satellite constellations. Yet one is the only successful Space SPAC and the other is barely hanging on. Who are you backing?

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Our portco Latent AI is partnering with Voyager Technologies to advance the future of edge AI. This collaboration brings together Latent AI’s leading capabilities in efficient, adaptive AI models with Voyager’s expertise in autonomous systems and mission-critical technologies. Together they will unlock new possibilities for deploying AI at the tactical edge.

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Ten years of Seraphim Space. From launching the world’s first SpaceTech VC fund to backing 145+ companies that have raised $8.9B, it's been a decade of driving innovation in defence, climate, and infrastructure from orbit. Explore the journey, timeline, and our latest podcast series with Candace Johnson: https://lnkd.in/eXf5ChiA #SeraphimSpace #DualUse #SpaceTech #VentureCapital #NewSpace #DeepTech #SpaceEconomy

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Defense aviation is entering a new chapter, one where AI flies alongside, and eventually instead of, human pilots. Harpoon portfolio company Merlin has signed an agreement to go public via an Inflection Point–led SPAC at an $800M pre-money valuation, paired with $125M+ in committed capital. It’s fuel for a mission years in the making: certifying autonomy with the FAA, fielding it with USSOCOM on the C-130J, and integrating on the KC-135, aircraft that form the backbone of U.S. and allied airpower. A big step toward making autonomy a standard capability in military and cargo aviation. Congrats to Matt George and the entire Merlin team! Link to the release in the comments.

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SPLYFINANCE backs receivables for companies in aerospace & defense. As we continue to grow, sharing impactful stories about high growth companies and their founders delivering critical infrastructure to the United States and surrounding allied countries is a commitment we have made. Below, CEO Chris Kemp shares his story on the collaboration between Astra our partner Klear Inc on trade finance and supply chain management solutions. #tradefinance #cashconversioncycles #saas #venturecapital #privatecredit

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Across the #healthspan and #wellness space, innovation is branching into clear thematic lanes 🧠💊 - from diagnostics and epigenetic therapies seeking clinical validation and integration, to mental health tools and consumer hormone supplements chasing traction in crowded DTC markets. At a recent demo day by Rare Founders, nine startups showcased these tensions in real time 🚀. The pitches covered 𝗕𝟮𝗕 𝗦𝗮𝗮𝗦, 𝗗𝗧𝗖 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀, 𝗱𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 - offering a window into how fragmented and fast-evolving these categories really are. 📸 Quick snapshot of who pitched Gaston AI : AI-led nutrition plans to prevent chronic diseases by reversing epigenetic markers. Hiiro : Adaptive coaching app to help first-timers complete marathons using RPE-based training. Lucida Medical Ltd : Regulatory-cleared AI tool identifying high-grade tumors from MRI scans; already in NHS use. DNA HH : DTC brand tackling hormonal health, especially in men, with strong retail traction. re-Action Health : Game-based care platform supporting patients and carers through cognitive and social engagement. Virilitas Labs : Affordable at-home sperm testing device developed from PhD research, focused on access and accuracy. StoreGene : Users upload their genome, get personalized health reports, and earn royalties from data use — like music rights for genetics. Neurometry : B2B monitoring tool to close care gaps and reduce risk of second strokes. VODA : AI-powered platform for LGBTQ+ identity-specific mental health support, already reaching 36k+ users. 📌 What stood out to me Three stood out to me - and I’ve broken down my takeaways for each. It got a bit too long for the main post, so you’ll find them in the comment box below 👇 or my Notion blog 👉 https://lnkd.in/eEg6swgC #DemoDay #Healthspan #Longevity #Wellness #Startups #Innovation

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Lux Aeterna has a bigger idea: making communications and Earth observation satellites reusable. Explains Founder/CEO, Brian Taylor: “Our ambitions are so much larger than just reentry…If you have a payload component, whether it’s compute or a hyperspectral camera, and you want to update that technology every year, instead of having to build new satellites and keep those old ones up in space, you can bring them down and go back.” https://lnkd.in/gD5xecJp

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Via Massachusetts Institute of Technology Despite $30–40B poured into GenAI, only 5% of pilots are driving real business impact. Reads like an ad for Invisible Technologies https://lnkd.in/gWz_nmZD

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We are thrilled to celebrate Powerline’s $7M Seed round and our partnership with this exceptional team. Led by Matineh Eybpoosh and Julian Lamy, Powerline is solving the most critical bottleneck of the energy transition: the "Intelligence Gap." As global energy demand surges, the grid requires capacity that is both faster to deploy and hyper-efficient to operate. Powerline is proving that the answer lies in software-driven intelligence. Their AI platform — the Battery Co-Pilot™ — radically improves the unit economics of energy storage, converting batteries from passive backup into high-yield financial assets. They are already delivering measurable results across the energy lifecycle: Existing Installations: Retrofitting "brownfield" battery portfolios with an intelligence layer that captures missed revenue and manages market volatility. New Deployments: Providing the digital testbeds needed to scale global fleets with institutional precision, significantly shortening the path to ROI. Legacy Displacement: Delivering a cost-effective alternative to polluting "peaker-plants," which can cost up to $200/MWh more than an optimized Powerline fleet. While solar-plus-storage is now consistently 20-30% cheaper than new-build gas, the real victory is in how that hardware is managed. At J-Impact Fund, we focus on the massive value creation that occurs when technology turns energy scarcity into abundance. By shifting the grid from a model of expensive, finite fuel to one of persistent, harvested power, we unlock superior financial upside. For us, deep decarbonization is the inevitable byproduct of this superior economic model. Congratulations to Matineh, Julian, and the entire team—we are proud to be on this journey with you. #EnergyStorage #AIOptimization #VentureCapital #AssetManagement #SeriesSeed #FinancialAlpha

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What do creative technologists build? At Baukunst, we’ve spent the last few years answering that question in real time. We are a collective of builders — operators, designers, engineers, and investors — committed to advancing the art of building at the frontiers of technology and design. We lead pre-seed rounds with conviction, often as the first institutional capital a founder takes, and we invest deeply in the messy, magical early days of company creation. This deck is the portfolio behind that philosophy, or rather that portfolio that has grown up out of it. We have chosen to champion these companies, and they chosen to co-create with us. These are companies built by creative technologists, founders who think in systems, design for real people, and push beyond the familiar. 

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