Cowboy Space banked €261.25M ($275M) in a new funding round led by Index Ventures. The investment marks a significant capital injection for the UK-based startup as it enters a high-stakes race to deploy advanced infrastructure in Earth's orbit.
The company focuses on developing satellite technology and orbital systems that incorporate artificial intelligence directly into space hardware. This "AI in orbit" approach aims to process data locally on satellites rather than transmitting raw data back to Earth, reducing latency and bandwidth requirements for complex space operations.
Founded by Baiju Bhatt, who previously co-founded the multi-billion dollar trading platform Robinhood, Cowboy Space is positioning itself as a European challenger to established American aerospace giants. The capital will support the engineering and deployment of its first generation of orbital assets.
The scale of this raise underscores a growing appetite among European venture capital firms to back "sovereign" deep tech projects capable of competing with global heavyweights in the rapidly expanding commercial space sector.
Originally reported by Tech Funding News.