EnduroSat raises $49 million to mass produce larger satellites

TAMPA, Fla. — Bulgaria-based microsatellite specialist EnduroSat announced $49 million in funding May 27 to ramp up production of a larger and more capable class of satellites.

The company currently builds 12–15 cubesats per month that weigh no more than 36 kilograms, founder and CEO Raycho Raychev said, but plans to significantly increase this rate with its 200-500kg Gen3 Endurance platform.

The new funds will help build out a 17,500-square-meter facility in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital, designed to produce up to 60 satellites per month by the end of the year.

It represents a major step up for the 10-year-old venture, which has delivered around 150 satellites since launching its first in 2018.

“We are already seeing significantly larger demand for 2025/2026,” Raychev said via email. “The plan is to deliver 120 units, minimum, by the end of the year.”

EnduroSat plans to fly two Gen3 Endurance validation missions in 2025: one to demonstrate propulsion technology and another to test an Earth observation system using in-orbit processing and a multispectral payload.

Gen3 Endurance is designed to provide up to 3.5 kilowatts of power and 2 gigabits per second of downlink capability. By comparison, existing EnduroSat satellites top out at about 50 watts and 1 Gbps.

According to Raychev, the Gen3 line was also designed from the start with accelerated manufacturing in mind.

“A huge amount of work went into simplifying the mechanical elements and the electronics, which allows a single [assembly, integration and test] AIT engineer to assemble and test a full ESPA-class satellite in just one day,” he said, referring to the platform’s compatibility with adapters used for secondary payloads on launch vehicles.

“This makes the Endurance class of satellites perfect for responsive space programs, defense, and other applications that require a short time to orbit and integration across multiple satellites with diverse missions.”

Raychev said demand is mainly coming from constellation programs in the remote sensing domain, including both optical and synthetic aperture radar, amid growing interest in broadband connectivity.

Initial customer deliveries for Gen3 Endurance are slated for the end of this year, with first deployments expected in the early second quarter of 2026.

Founders Fund, the venture capital firm backed by billionaire Peter Thiel and an early investor in SpaceX, led the 43 million euro funding round. CEECAT Capital, Morphosis Capital and other returning investors also participated.