NewOrbit, a UK space technology company, has closed an oversubscribed Series A round of $18.5 million. The Reading-based startup builds satellites for very low Earth orbit, a band between 200 and 300 kilometres above the planet's surface that has never hosted a commercial satellite. CEO and co-founder Anatolii Papulov believes it is the most underused stretch of orbital space available today.
The region goes by the acronym VLEO. For six decades, it stayed empty for a simple reason: the environment there is brutal for hardware. Atmospheric drag pulls any unprotected spacecraft back toward Earth within weeks. Atomic oxygen, an unusually reactive form of the element found at those altitudes, corrodes satellite surfaces. On top of that, aerodynamic forces knock vehicles off their intended course. No commercial operator had solved all three problems together. NewOrbit says its satellite, NEO-1, does. The vehicle is built specifically for VLEO and designed to operate there for up to five years.
Voyager Ventures led the round. Angel investors include David Kirk, former Chief Scientist at NVIDIA, and Lawrence Leuschner, co-founder and former CEO of TIER Mobility. Family office Custos also joined, alongside returning backers Atlantic.vc, Lifeline Ventures, LGF, and Illusian.
Flying closer to Earth changes what a satellite can do, and how much it costs to do it. The basic physics are straightforward: at lower altitude, sensors see more detail, signals travel a shorter distance and arrive stronger, and the energy needed for data transmission drops significantly. From 200 to 300 kilometres, NewOrbit says NEO-1 can deliver drone-quality imagery at roughly one-twentieth the cost of conventional satellites, provide 5G-equivalent connectivity directly to ordinary mobile phones with no special antenna needed, and support capabilities unavailable from higher orbits, including LiDAR mapping from space and live HD video.
The commercial satellite industry has understood these advantages for years. What kept VLEO out of reach was engineering. Propulsion systems capable of continuously fighting atmospheric drag at those altitudes, while lasting long enough to be commercially useful, simply did not exist for private operators until recently. Materials that resist atomic oxygen at scale have also taken time to develop. According to BIS Research, cited by Satelyx, the global VLEO satellite market stood at $10.4 million in 2025 and is projected to reach $1.5 billion by 2034, suggesting the segment is still in its earliest commercial stage.
The funding will pay for the NEO Production Complex, a satellite manufacturing facility NewOrbit plans to open in 2027. The first commercial satellite will be assembled there and launched in 2028, which the company says will be the first time customer payloads have ever flown at these altitudes. Production capacity is then expected to grow from ten satellites a year to several per week. At that pace, NewOrbit says the facility will be Europe's largest dedicated VLEO facility.
The business model is relatively simple. Customers supply the payload; NewOrbit handles integration and the flight to VLEO. Target applications include Earth observation, satellite-to-phone connectivity, weather forecasting, and national security uses.
The round also came with an advisory board addition. Jean-Jacques Dordain, who served as Director General of the European Space Agency from 2003 to 2015, is joining NewOrbit's board. He joins Sir Chris Deverell, the former Commander of UK Joint Forces, who was already a member.
NewOrbit was founded in 2021 and operates out of Reading, in the UK's Thames Valley. The engineering team has backgrounds at SpaceX, NASA JPL, RocketLab, Tesla, Airbus, ESA, and Formula 1. The company's flagship product is NEO-1, a satellite built to hold position in VLEO for years rather than weeks. Where standard satellites typically orbit at 500 kilometres or higher, NEO-1 is designed to function at one-third of that altitude.
To make that work, NewOrbit developed its own propulsion system rather than using existing off-the-shelf hardware. The satellite also incorporates custom attitude control to resist aerodynamic torques, and uses materials chosen for durability against atomic oxygen. The company refers to VLEO as "Earth's last empty orbit," reflecting both the difficulty of operating there and the commercial potential it sees in doing so.
"For sixty years, VLEO has been treated as too hostile for commercial satellites. It is in fact the most valuable empty real estate in space." — Anatolii Papulov, CEO and co-founder of NewOrbit
There is also an environmental angle worth noting. Because VLEO satellites sit within the upper fringes of the atmosphere, they deorbit on their own within weeks of being switched off. Satellites in higher orbits can leave debris that lingers for decades. NewOrbit sees this natural deorbit as a practical benefit for operators who want to avoid contributing to the growing problem of space congestion.
The Series A was led by Voyager Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm. The round also brought in two notable angel investors: David Kirk, whose career centred on semiconductor and GPU development at NVIDIA, and Lawrence Leuschner, who co-founded and led TIER Mobility before stepping down as CEO.
Atlantic.vc, Lifeline Ventures, LGF, and Illusian all returned from earlier funding stages. Family office Custos participated for the first time.
The round was oversubscribed, meaning demand from investors exceeded the amount NewOrbit was raising. For a hardware company at this stage, that level of interest points to genuine conviction in VLEO as a distinct and investable category, not just in NewOrbit's specific approach to it.
