🛰️ Tumbleweed raises €6.9M to make microgravity accessible to all laboratories and industrial players

Tumbleweed : making access to space as simple as sending a package

Microgravity opens up significant opportunities for medical research, biotechnology, and semiconductors. However, accessing it remains a long and complex process: qualifying an experiment for spaceflight traditionally takes several years.

Tumbleweed is removing this barrier. Founded in 2024, the startup has developed "Pods," pre-certified modular containers that handle power, data, and certification for experiments in orbit. Laboratories, industrial firms, and R&D teams send their payloads directly to Tumbleweed and receive their data during the flight. Starting in 2028, the Pods will return to Earth with the samples.

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The result: missions that are 5 times faster and 10 times cheaper than an equivalent experiment conducted on the International Space Station, starting at €15,000. In fact, all of Tumbleweed’s clients to date are first-time space users who can focus on their core expertise while leaving the space-related logistics to the company.

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Oasis Alpha, a first successful mission

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Built in nine months—five times faster than industry standards—Oasis Alpha was launched on July 7, 2026, aboard the SpaceX Transporter-17 flight. It became the first Austrian commercial satellite, carrying four client payloads. The mission was fully sold out one year before launch and paid for in advance.

Just two years after its inception, Tumbleweed is already generating revenue in orbit and has 25 employees based between Vienna and Delft.

"This funding will allow us to scale what we demonstrated with our first mission, Oasis Alpha: that microgravity can become a widely accessible industrial resource."
Julian Rothenbuchner, CEO and co-founder of Tumbleweed

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A €6.9M round to increase mission frequency

The round is led by PactVC, with participation from Vanagon Ventures, existing investor Prototype Capital, andEWOR, as well as international investors and business angels. More than a third of the team has also invested personally.

These funds will finance three missions in 2027, which will carry more than ten clients from the fields of medical research, biotechnology, and agritech. They will also accelerate the development of Oasis Beta, a next-generation orbital platform scheduled for 2028, capable of hosting larger payloads and returning samples to Earth.

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21st by CentraleSupélec, a bridge to the French deeptech ecosystem

Supported by 21st by CentraleSupélec for several months, Tumbleweed is leveraging the accelerator's network to connect with investors and key players in the French deeptech ecosystem, thereby preparing for the next stages of its development.

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👏 Congratulations to the entire Tumbleweed team on this great milestone!