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Six months after its first orbital rocket cleared the launch tower for just 14 seconds before crashing back to earth, Gilmour Space Technologies has secured $217 million in funding that chief executive Adam Gilmour says finally gives Australia a fighting chance in the global space race.
The funding round, led by the federal government’s National Reconstruction Fund Corporation and superannuation giant Hostplus with $75 million each, making the Queensland company Australia’s newest unicorn – a fast-growth start-up valued at more than $1 billion – and one of the country’s most heavily backed private technology ventures.
Gilmour Space CEO Adam Gilmour with the test vehicle they hope to launch this year.Credit: Dan Peled
“We’re a rocket company that has never had access to the capital that our American competitors have,” Gilmour told this masthead. “This is the first raise where I’ve actually raised a decent amount of capital compared to the rest of the world.”
The investment reflects growing concern about Australia’s reliance on foreign launch providers – predominantly Elon Musk’s SpaceX – to put government, defence and commercial satellites into orbit. With US launch queues stretching beyond two years and geopolitical tensions reshaping access to space infrastructure, Canberra has identified sovereign launch capability as a strategic priority.
Gilmour – who says he doesn’t want to directly rival Musk – claims more than 70 per cent of its rocket components are manufactured domestically, and Australia’s southern hemisphere location offers access to orbital paths congested American spaceports cannot easily reach.
The 23-metre Eris rocket, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unveiled as Australia’s first sovereign orbital launch vehicle, lifted off from the Bowen Orbital Spaceport in North Queensland on July 30 last year. It achieved 14 seconds of flight before falling back to the ground, a result Gilmour framed as a partial success in an industry where first launches routinely fail.
“Half the company didn’t even think we’d get off the pad. My chief engineer was doubtful we’d get off the pad,” Gilmour said. “I would have liked it to go another 10 seconds, another 20 seconds … 20 to 30 was my goal. But the team was still just so pumped.”
A rocket built by Australian start-up Gilmour Space was only briefly airborne before exploding in July.Credit: Gilmour Space Technologies
The company says it identified the cause of the failure within hours – one of the four hybrid engines lost thrust almost immediately after lift-off, followed by a second engine failure nine seconds later – and has since conducted engine tests that successfully addressed the issues. A hypersonic sub-orbital test flight is planned for the second quarter of 2026, with a second orbital attempt targeted for the third quarter.
The funding round attracted an unusual coalition of institutional investors including the Future Fund, HESTA, QIC, Funds SA, NGS Super and Brighter Super, along with tech-heavy venture capital funds Blackbird and Main Sequence, a fund founded by CSIRO.
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“I fundamentally believe that superannuation funds should be much more heavily investing in Australian companies,” Gilmour said. “I talked to plenty of them at round tables towards the end of last year. They said they’d like to invest in us but didn’t have a mandate. I think it was pretty weak. If they can get a mandate, that will unlock a ton more capital.”
Gilmour said the company operates on roughly a quarter of the annual budget of its American competitors, giving it a longer runway despite the smaller capital base. The new funding provides what he called “room to grow, room to have a go, room to fail, room to keep going”.
The company already has its sights on public markets, with Gilmour revealing it has held discussions with the ASX, NASDAQ and New York Stock Exchange about a dual listing within two to three years.
“Everyone’s comfortable with that timeline. We want to at least get to orbit, have a decent contract book, get all that technology right,” he said. “We’ve gotten good pitches from the NYSE and also a decent pitch from NASDAQ.”
NRFC chief executive David Gall said Gilmour’s technology has the potential to anchor Australia’s space industry, noting the country’s geographic advantages for orbital launches.
“We don’t have the same back-up of two-plus years just to get in the queue to launch like they would in the US,” Gall said. “Being on different orbits, we can use that freeway with much easier access.”
The investment comes as Gilmour’s financial accounts show mounting losses. The company’s losses rose to $22.4 million in filings with the corporate regulator from November, typical for a pre-revenue rocket company yet to achieve commercial launch.
Gilmour Space, founded in 2013 by brothers Adam and James Gilmour on the Gold Coast, now employs 235 people and plans to add another 50 staff this year. The company operates Australia’s first and only licensed orbital spaceport at Bowen and has demonstrated satellite capability through its ElaraSat platform, which launched on a US rideshare mission in 2024.
Rick Baker, partner at Blackbird Ventures, which led Gilmour’s Series A round, said he gave Adam Gilmour “a few million to get started and build out these hybrid rocket engines” – a modest sum compared to the $217 million now backing the company.
“Blackbird led Gilmour’s Series A when Australia didn’t have a space agency, let alone a pathway to launch,” Baker said.
“That early capital let Adam and the team prove what was possible and created the conditions for today’s institutional investment. This is how deep tech gets built … Venture takes the first risk, founders deliver, and larger pools of capital follow.”
Baker said Gilmour “has this innate ability to get things done – that’s just wonderful to see in an Aussie founder.”
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