Spaced Ventures Inc., a Cape Canaveral, Fla.-based crowdfunding platform that allows everyday people to invest in space startups, raised $1.2m in seed funding.
The round was led by WorldQuant Ventures with participation from angel investors in the space industry, including Alex Fisher.
The company will use the funds to double its team and to launch new financial products for its investor base and its portfolio of space companies.
Co-founded in 2020 by digital community builder Aaron Burnett and Wall Street veteran, J. Brant Arseneau, Spaced Ventures was built to address the funding gap for early-stage space companies and to give space enthusiasts the ability to invest as little as $100 and own shares in emerging space startups across a variety of verticals.
The company has already received over 100 applications from space startups looking to raise capital and 1700 potential investors have registered on the site. Since opening the platform to the public in September 2021, three space companies have already received over $600,000 in commitments from investors with an average individual investment of over $2,300.
Unlike rewards-based crowdfunding that gives individual investors a non-financial reward such as a product in exchange for a monetary contribution, equity crowdfunding offers investors who are willing to accept the risk of loss actual ownership in the form of company shares in return for their investment.
