Primo Capital was the first investment vehicle to launch a fund dedicated to space technology within the European Union, and is now doubling down by announcing the launch of Primo Space 2, the new fund dedicated to space and dual-use technologies.
Primo Space 2 already enjoys the support of Italian and European institutional investors, including the European Investment Fund. The fund has received expressions of interest totalling over 70 million euros ahead of its first closing, scheduled for after the summer, with a fundraising target of 120 million euros.
The project stems from the experience gained in recent years with Primo Space Fund, which has established itself as one of Europe’s leading operators specialising in investments in space technologies. Launched in 2020, Primo Space Fund has invested in 19 companies based in six different countries, analysed nearly 1,500 investment opportunities and developed unique expertise at the intersection of finance, innovation and space technologies.
The portfolio companies have raised a total of over 470 million euros, more than eight times the capital invested by the fund. The 19 portfolio companies currently employ around 900 people, with over 600 new jobs created since the Primo Space Fund’s first investment. Overall, the portfolio has generated over €115 million in turnover, 69 per cent of which was generated in international markets, confirming the strong global focus of the companies supported by the fund.
In recent years, the space sector has undergone a profound transformation, significantly expanding its scale and significance.
Space is no longer a niche industrial sector, but a strategic infrastructure on which communications, navigation, Earth observation, cyber security and defence depend. An increasing number of applications that are essential to the economy – from financial markets to precision farming, from logistics and transport to smart energy grids – rely on technologies and data from space.
At the same time, the new geopolitical landscape is accelerating European investment in strategic technological capabilities, whilst the growing demand for dual-use technologies is further expanding opportunities for start-ups in the sector.
Investors are therefore faced with a much broader market than just a few years ago. Private-sector demand is growing, commercial applications are multiplying, and the downstream segment (the range of applications, solutions and innovations that utilise data and signals from space-based infrastructure) is becoming one of the main drivers of value creation.
According to McKinsey & Company, the global space economy could be worth 1,800 billion dollars by 2035. However, Europe still lacks a sufficient number of specialist investors capable of supporting companies from the early stages of development through to the most advanced growth rounds. This is the gap that Primo Space 2 aims to help bridge.
Primo Space 2 builds on the strategy developed with the first fund, increasing investment capacity and supporting companies from seed rounds through to Series B funding rounds.
The fund will continue to invest across the entire value chain of the space economy, from upstream technologies to downstream applications, whilst maintaining a strong focus on Europe.
Primo Space 2 is underpinned by an ecosystem built up over more than eight years of activity: vertical expertise, a network of technical advisers, well-established relationships with the industry, and one of Europe’s most specialised teams in investments focused on space technologies.
Led by general partners Giorgio Minola, Ilaria Cavalleri and Matteo Cascinari (pictured from left), the fund draws on expertise gained through years of investment in the sector. Completing the investment team, as in the previous fund, is Roberto Battiston, former president of the Italian Space Agency (ASI).
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