Australian rocket launch startup Southern Launch raises $25 million

The federal government’s National Reconstruction Fund (NRF) has tipped $10 million into a $25 million Series A round for veteran South Australian rocket launchpad startup Southern Launch.

The raise was led by specialist defence-industry merchant bank Brindabella and Company and, alongside the NRF, includes former Macquarie Group execs Nicholas Moore and Alex Harvey, as well as Coupland Asset Management.

Southern Launch previously announced an undisclosed “significant” raise in March 2025, led by “a syndicate of prominent Australian infrastructure investors”, so it’s likely the Series A includes that raise, topped up by the NRF’s $10 million.

Founded in 2017, the company has two spaceports in South Australia: the Koonibba Test Range, near Ceduna, and the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex near Port Lincoln, 680 kilometres west of Adelaide, on the Great Australian Bight.

The new funds will go towards upping headcount and accelerating its launch, re-entry, and range services.

Alongside pads for orbital and suborbital launch, and testing facilities for smaller rockets, the company also facilitated the world’s first commercial spacecraft re-entry at the Koonibba Test Range in early 2025. A further three re-entries, including the Varda W-6 capsule in May 2026, have happened since. The first commercial rocket launch was in 2020.

NRF CEO David Gall said, “Southern Launch meets a critical need for rocket launch and re-entry services in the Southern Hemisphere”, addressing a global bottleneck in the space industry.

Southern Launch CEO Lloyd Damp said the raise is a major milestone for the company.

“We are scaling infrastructure and capabilities to position Australia as a global leader in launch and re-entry, while unlocking new economic opportunities in low-Earth orbit and beyond,” he said.

Adelaide is home to the Australian Space Agency (ASA) and the South Australian Space Industry Centre.

Queensland rocket builder and launchpad scaleup Gilmour Space, which recently appointed former NASA deputy administrator and astronaut Pamela Melroy to its board, also has a presence in Adelaide.

Yesterday, the ASA announced that the Australia–US Space Framework Agreement was tabled in Parliament ahead of coming into force later this year. It also signals a new phase in one of Australia’s most significant international space partnerships.

The agreement establishes an overarching treaty-level framework for civil space cooperation between Australia and the United States. It creates clearer pathways for Australian governments, businesses and researchers to collaborate with NASA and other US agencies on major missions, technology programs and future space activities.

This article was first published by Startup Daily.

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