Even as Elon Musk’s SpaceX seeks to go public later this year to raise as much as $50 billion, China has recorded its biggest financing in a private company developing commercial rockets, with iSpace raising a Series D extension round of 5.037 billion yuan ($729.1 million).
iSpace, fully known as Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology Co Ltd, completed this big-ticket financing from a long list of investors, including domestic investment firms Cowin Capital and Jingming Capital, the two lead investors of the deal.
Existing shareholders such as Spring Partners, CDH Investments’s hardtech-focused CDH Baifu Asset Management, Capitallink, and an investment fund under the government-owned Chengdu Industry Group participated, alongside multiple new investors such as TuringPE, CapitalNuts, Guozhong Capital, and JIC Investment, just to name a few.
The Series D++ round comes as iSpace is moving towards an initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq-style STAR Market in mainland China, with Tianfeng Securities and CITIC Securities serving as the sponsors.
Currently in the process of its domestic listing tutorials, iSpace is among a group of homegrown commercial space companies seeking to go public amid a recovery in IPO markets and tailwinds from SpaceX’s much-anticipated blockbuster listing that could happen sometime in 2026.
Leading Chinese rocket makers, including LandSpace Technology Corporation, CAS Space, Space Pioneer, and Galactic Energy, are all heading towards a domestic listing, after the Chinese regulator released new guidelines in 2025 to expand the scope of the Fifth Set of STAR Market Listing Standards to specifically cover commercial rocket companies amid the country’s broader efforts to support high-growth, capital-intensive tech industries.
A total of 13 commercial space companies in China were in queue for an onshore listing as of February 11, including 11 targeting the STAR Market. The 13 IPO hopefuls included five rocket developers, five commercial satellite solutions providers, and three supply-chain companies, according to Chinese data provider Wind.
Established in 2016, iSpace made history in 2019 as it became the first private company in China to successfully reach orbit with its solid-propellant commercial launch vehicle Hyperbola-1 (SQX-1).
In the years that followed, the company introduced a series of commercial launch vehicles, including Hyperbola-2Y (SQX-2Y), a liquid-propellant reusable rocket model designed for vertical take-off and vertical landing (VTVL) to achieve low-cost, rapid-reuse spaceflights. iSpace successfully completed the model’s first VTVL test in November 2023 and the re-flight of the same rocket just over a month later, making a major milestone for China’s reusable rocket industry.
Now focusing on liquid-fuelled reusable launch vehicle models, iSpace is preparing for the maiden flight of its Hyperbola-3, a large, methane-propelled, partially reusable launch vehicle aimed at achieving “orbit plus sea recovery” in one mission this year. This latest rocket model is designed to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 by providing low-cost, high-frequency launch services for satellite constellations, space station cargo, and space tourism.
The new proceeds will see iSpace accelerate the R&D and commercialisation of its liquid oxygen and methane reusable rocket models.
Following the Series D++ round, the company will also continue its pursuit of the technology road map of “land launch, sea recovery,” same as SpaceX’s Falcon 9, in which the rocket lifts off from a traditional land-based pad, but its first-stage booster lands on an Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS) or barge at sea rather than returning to the launch site, to allow for increased payload capacity and cost-effective reusability.
Since its angel round in 2017, the company has secured multiple funding rounds with iMPC, Shunwei Capital, CDH Investments, and HSG among its early backers and well over 7.8 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) raised over the years.
Prior to the latest deal, iSpace announced its completion of a Series D+ round at 700 million yuan ($101.3 million) in September 2025.
