Colorado space defense company raises $100 million, plans to hire dozens

A company building spaceflight training technology for U.S. Space Force warfighters raised $100 million in venture capital that will fund significant hiring in the coming months.

True Anomaly, based in Centennial, revealed the Series B funding round Tuesday, saying it will help the 18-month-old business expand, hiring dozens of hardware and software employees over the next year.

“It’s an awesome external validation of our thesis and the traction we’ve been able to accumulate to date,” said Even Rogers, co-founder and CEO of the company.

True Anomaly has grown from about 50 employees to 107 over the past year. It expects to expand to over 190 by the end of 2024, Rogers said.

Its funding round was led by Los Angeles-based Riot Ventures, which had invested in the company’s earlier round announced in April. Existing investors Eclipse, based in Palo Alto, California; ACME Capital in San Francisco; Narya, based in Ohio; Champion Hill Ventures, in North Carolina, also participated. Other investors included Menlo Ventures, 645 Ventures, Rocketship.vc, and FiveNine Ventures.

True Anomaly formed in early 2022 to help the U.S. military, especially Space Force, respond to the growing militarization of space and the need to have space fighters learn and practice the art of flying satellites and spacecraft in orbit in potentially hostile situations.

The company built a pair of small satellites, called Jackal, that will be used for training after they’re launched to low Earth orbit about 350 miles above the planet.

The satellites are scheduled to blast off aboard SpaceX’s Transporter 10 mission carrying many companies‘ small satellites to orbit in March.

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SpaceX

True Anomaly has offices in Colorado Springs, where its training center for U.S. military space fighters, many of them U.S. Space Force Guardians, will be. Its Centennial headquarters, just south of Denver, is where the business designs, builds and operates satellites and develops software for satellite operations.

Its staffing is split between the two locations, and its hiring will fill positions in both locations, Rogers said.

Its Mosaic software is being designed to use artificial intelligence and automation to help space warfighters fly dozens of small satellites in coordination with each other to a degree that hasn’t been readily available to the military, Rogers said.

The Space Force in September awarded the company $17 million in a small business innovation research grant to further work on Mosaic.

With its new VC funding, the company also plans to build dozens of satellites in 2024 and 2025 it will launch to add to its training portfolio.

It also will open an office in Washington, D.C., as it pursues landing more military contracts, Rogers said.

Riot Ventures has been helping fund True Anomaly since its founding, which general partner Will Coffield called a privilege.

“Doubling down in this round is a reflection of the exceptional execution we’ve witnessed over the last two years,” Coffield said, in a press release announcing the $100 million round. “The U.S. and its allies face intense national security challenges in the space domain, and we believe True Anomaly is going to be the company that delivers the core set of capabilities to offset those threats.”

Venture capital has grown increasingly scarce in recent months, especially for space companies, Rogers said.

True Anomaly was able to attract a significant Series B round because of its military focus and ability to land contracts distinguishes it from many other space startups, he said.

“True Anomaly is not a space company. We’re a defense products company,” he said. “There’s still a lot of military spending.”

The group of investors in True Anomaly’s latest funding round have experience in defense businesses and technology startups that will be valuable to True Anomaly, too, he said.

“We’re looking for helpful strategists,” not just financial backing, Rogers said.