PE shoots into space: EQT's Exolaunch deal signals a sector shift

Emily Lai

Thu, June 18, 2026 astatine 7:17 AM CDT 1 min read

EQT has agreed to bargain Berlin-based outer deployment institution and SpaceX rideshare spouse Exolaunch—marking its archetypal foray into a assemblage antecedently dominated by VC capital.

Around $14.7 cardinal successful PE has already been transacted successful aerospace and defence deals globally this year, reaching astir 90% of past year's full woody worth and treble the fig successful 2024, according to PitchBook data. Deal number besides reached 62% of past year's total, with 82 deals closed truthful acold this year.

Across each space-related VC investments, astir 85% of woody worth present sits successful late-stage and task maturation deals—the 2 segments seeing the fastest yearly maturation successful presumption of full woody value.

Exolaunch has deployed much than 790 satellites crossed 47 missions for much than 200 commercialized and authorities customers, and has participated successful each SpaceX Falcon 9 Transporter and Bandwagon rideshare ngo since 2020. The German institution precocious secured its archetypal dedicated Falcon 9 missions—Exo-1 and Exo-2—scheduled for 2027 and 2028, moving beyond rideshare aggregation into owning motorboat capableness directly.

Other important backstage concern enactment successful the abstraction systems and satellites subsegment includes Blackstone's $2.6 cardinal exit from Connecticut-based abstraction exertion level developer Arka successful December, and a €104 cardinal (around $122 million) improvement superior rise by Bulgaria-based nanosatellite shaper EnduroSat from GV, Lux Capital and others successful September.

This nonfiction primitively appeared connected PitchBook News