Y combinator start-up Astroforge secured a $13M seed round for asteroid mining ambitions

• ByStartupStory     |    May 26, 2022

Astroforge, an asteroid mining company has raised $13million in a seed funding round. The funding round was led by led by Initialized Capital, with investments from Seven Seven Six, EarthRise, Aera VC, Liquid 2, and Soma.

Astroforge, a Y Combinator startup, aspires to go where no one else has gone before by being the first company to mine an asteroid and return the material back to Earth – and it intends to do so before the end of the decade. To achieve this target Astroforge has raised the funds.

There are a few more indications about the company’s future goals, however. They appear to be aiming for a modest operation, with a payload of fewer than 200 kilos, in order to take advantage of low-cost rideshare missions to geosynchronous and lunar destinations. They’re also pursuing asteroids with significant quantities of platinum and iridium, rather than water, helium, or other minerals.

 Astroforge has already secured cooperation with OrbAstro to produce the first satellite for the demonstration mission, as well as a rideshare place on a SpaceX Falcon 9 flight. It has also discovered several potential asteroids in the right orbit and with the right content of platinum-group metals. And there won’t be a shortage of asteroids to chase; out of the 10 million near-Earth objects, the business is only interested in about a million.

A few firms, like Larry Page’s Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, have tried and failed to conquer asteroid mining, investing (and losing) millions of dollars in the process. Astroforge, however, intends to succeed where past companies have failed, despite the high risks and extended-time period for a return on the investment.

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