TerraSpark
Delivering clean, resilient space-based solar power from orbit, initially to remote industries and disaster zones.
Website: https://www.terraspark.io/
Cover Block
PUBLIC
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Name | TerraSpark |
| Tagline | Delivering clean, resilient space-based solar power from orbit, initially to remote industries and disaster zones. |
| Headquarters | Luxembourg, Luxembourg |
| Founded | 2025 |
| Stage | Pre-Seed |
| Business Model | B2B |
| Industry | Cleantech / Climatetech |
| Technology | Space |
| Geography | Western Europe |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (3+) |
| Funding Label | Undisclosed (total disclosed ~$6,200,000) |
Links
PUBLIC
- Website: https://terraspark.energy
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/terraspark-energy
Executive Summary
PUBLIC TerraSpark is a Luxembourg-based startup founded in 2025 aiming to commercialize space-based solar power, a venture-scale bet on delivering continuous, weather-independent energy from orbit to underserved terrestrial markets [Renewables Now, Feb 2025]. The company's immediate strategic wedge is a focus on modular systems in Low Earth Orbit, targeting remote industrial operations, island nations, and disaster response as initial customers, a path intended to prove commercial viability before scaling to higher orbits and broader grid coverage [LinkedIn].
Its founding team combines deep space engineering pedigree with operational experience in scaling billion-euro technology companies. Chief Technology Officer Sanjay Vijendran formerly led the European Space Agency's Solaris initiative for space-based solar power, providing a direct link to institutional research and validation [euronews.com, 2025]. Co-founders Jasper Deprez (CEO) and Matthias Laug (COO) bring scaling expertise from building global platforms like Tradler and co-founding high-growth mobility company Tier Mobility [TechCrunch, 2020].
The company closed a €5.4 million (approximately $6.2 million) pre-seed round in 2025, co-led by European venture firms Daphni and Sake Bosch, with participation from better ventures, Hans(wo)men Group, the Luxembourg Business Angel Network, and the Karaque Club [thenextweb.com]. This capital is earmarked for financing pilot applications of its technology, which involves designing 'sunsats' to collect solar energy and beam it to Earth via radio-frequency transmission, with a stated long-term goal of achieving a levelized cost of energy as low as 3 cents per kilowatt-hour [F6S, 2025].
Over the next 12-18 months, the critical milestones to watch are the execution of terrestrial wireless power demonstration tests, targeted for 2026, and progress toward the more ambitious goal of a first space-to-Earth power transmission demonstration, currently slated for 2028 [thefuturismtoday.com]. The primary risk vector is the immense technical and capital intensity inherent to the sector, making the company's ability to sequentially de-risk its modular approach with limited capital a key determinant of its medium-term trajectory.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core company facts and funding round are confirmed by multiple sources; some technical claims and timelines are sourced from company-adjacent profiles.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Classification |
|---|---|
| Stage | Pre-Seed |
| Business Model | B2B |
| Industry / Vertical | Cleantech / Climatetech |
| Technology Type | Space |
| Geography | Western Europe |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (3+) |
| Funding | Undisclosed (total disclosed ~$6,200,000) |
Company Overview
PUBLIC TerraSpark was established in 2025 in Luxembourg, a jurisdiction with a well-established legal and financial framework for space ventures [Renewables Now, Feb 2025]. The company operates as Terraspark SARL, a private limited liability company, according to its registration on startup directory F6S [F6S, 2025]. Its founding narrative positions it as a European contender in the nascent field of space-based solar power, with a stated mission to deliver resilient, clean energy from orbit [LinkedIn].
The founding team coalesced around a blend of entrepreneurial scaling experience and deep technical expertise in space systems. Jasper Deprez, the CEO, is a serial entrepreneur who previously built the HRTech platform Tradler [thenextweb.com]. Matthias Laug, the COO, was a co-founder and former CTO of the micromobility scale-up Tier Mobility, bringing operational experience from high-growth European startups like Lieferando [TechCrunch, 2020] [Spotify, 2026]. Dr. Sanjay Vijendran, the CTO, provides the core technical credibility, having formerly led the European Space Agency's (ESA) Solaris initiative, a flagship program dedicated to studying the feasibility of space-based solar power [euronews.com, 2025].
Key early milestones are focused on validation and initial capital formation. The company secured a pre-seed funding round in 2025, reported at €5.4 million (approximately $6.2 million), to finance its initial technology development and pilot applications [Renewables Now, Feb 2025] [thenextweb.com]. This round attracted a consortium of European investors, including venture capital firms Daphni and Sake Bosch as co-leads, alongside better ventures, Hans(wo)men Group, the Luxembourg Business Angel Network, and the Karaque Club [thenextweb.com]. Public technology milestones are forward-looking, with plans for wireless demonstrations in 2026 and an initial space-to-Earth transmission test targeted for 2028 [thefuturismtoday.com].
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core facts (founding year, location, pre-seed round, key team roles) are corroborated by multiple sources. Some team background details are sourced from single publications or LinkedIn profiles. The precise legal structure is confirmed via a single directory listing.
Product and Technology
MIXED TerraSpark's product is a conceptual framework for delivering solar power from orbit, a proposition that remains entirely forward-looking. The company's public descriptions focus on the intended architecture and its commercial rationale rather than on a deployed system. The core concept involves placing modular satellites, termed 'sunsats,' in Low Earth Orbit to collect solar energy, convert it to radio-frequency (RF) waves, and beam it wirelessly to ground-based receiving stations [F6S, 2025]. The stated initial target is megawatt-scale power delivery, with a long-term goal of scaling to gigawatt capacity and achieving a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) as low as 3 cents per kilowatt-hour [F6S, 2025]. This LCOE target, if realized, would be a primary driver of economic viability.
The company's strategic wedge is its focus on starting in LEO with a modular approach, which it contrasts with traditional, more monolithic geostationary orbit concepts [LinkedIn]. This is intended to reduce initial technical risk and capital outlay, aiming for earlier commercial viability by targeting specific, off-grid use cases. TerraSpark explicitly names remote industrial operations, island nations, and disaster relief zones as its first intended customers, positioning its technology as a solution for locations where extending the terrestrial grid is impractical or too costly [LinkedIn]. The technology stack for such a system is complex and unproven at commercial scale, involving in-space photovoltaic assembly, high-efficiency power conversion, precise RF beamforming, and safe atmospheric transmission.
Publicly announced development milestones are limited but provide a timeline for de-risking. The company has stated it plans to conduct wireless power transmission demonstrations in 2026, with a space-to-Earth transmission test targeted for 2028 [thefuturismtoday.com]. No technical specifications for the satellites, transmission frequencies, or receiver rectenna designs have been disclosed. The company's website and profiles describe the system as delivering "clean, reliable energy anywhere on Earth, 24/7, weather-independent, cable-free" [terraspark.energy], which encapsulates the value proposition but not the engineered product.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Product claims are sourced from company profiles and niche press; technical specifications and demonstration results are not yet public.
Market Research
PUBLIC The market for space-based solar power is moving from decades of theoretical study to a new phase of commercial pilots, driven by falling launch costs and rising demand for resilient, clean energy. While TerraSpark's specific market sizing is not publicly disclosed, the broader opportunity for SBSP is framed by third-party research from government and industry bodies, which points to a potential multi-trillion-dollar addressable market over the long term, contingent on technological and economic breakthroughs.
A 2021 report from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, commissioned by the European Space Agency's SOLARIS initiative, is a foundational public analysis. It estimated the global addressable market for SBSP could reach €1.1 trillion ($1.2 trillion) annually by 2050, assuming technical feasibility and cost targets are met [Fraunhofer ISE, 2021]. This long-term projection is often segmented by initial applications: remote industrial operations (e.g., mining, data centers), island and isolated grids, disaster relief, and eventually baseload power for major grids. The UK government's 2021 Space-Based Solar Power feasibility study, led by Fraunhofer UK, projected that a single operational SBSP system could generate up to £17 billion in gross value added to the UK economy by 2050, highlighting the scale of industrial activity required, not just energy sales [UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, 2021].
Demand drivers are coalescing from multiple directions. The primary tailwind is the global push for 24/7 carbon-free energy to complement intermittent terrestrial renewables like wind and solar, a need acutely felt by energy-intensive industries and nations with ambitious net-zero targets. Adjacent markets experiencing rapid growth, such as the global market for microgrids and remote power systems (projected to exceed $40 billion by 2027 according to a Global Market Insights report), illustrate the immediate economic pain point TerraSpark aims to address with a space-based solution [Global Market Insights, 2022]. Furthermore, the dramatic reduction in launch costs, led by SpaceX and other providers, has altered the fundamental economics of placing large, complex structures in orbit, a prerequisite that was prohibitive for earlier SBSP concepts.
Regulatory and macro forces present a complex landscape. On one hand, national security and spectrum allocation for wireless power transmission are significant, unresolved hurdles that will require international coordination through bodies like the International Telecommunication Union. On the other, strategic government programs are emerging as a critical catalyst. The European Space Agency's SOLARIS program, a €100 million preparatory initiative, is a direct demand signal and validation of the technological pathway, aiming to decide on a full development program by 2025 [ESA]. Similar studies and funding are underway in the UK, Japan, and the US Department of Defense, which is exploring SBSP for resilient military basing.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Global SBSP Addressable Market (2050 projection) | 1200 $B |
| UK GVA from one SBSP system (2050 projection) | 17 £B |
| Global Remote Power/Microgrid Market (2027 projection) | 40 $B |
| ESA SOLARIS Program Budget | 0.1 €B |
The chart underscores the vast theoretical prize, but the wide gap between the modest current program budgets and the long-term projections highlights the execution risk. The immediate, analogous market for remote power solutions provides a tangible commercial benchmark, while the ESA budget reflects the current scale of institutional, non-dilutive funding available to de-risk the core technology in Europe.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Market sizing relies on third-party government and industry reports, not company-specific data. Adjacent market figure is from a commercial research firm.
Competitive Landscape
MIXED, TerraSpark enters a nascent, capital-intensive field where competitive positioning is defined less by market share today and more by technological approach, regulatory pathways, and the credibility to attract the billions in capital required for orbital demonstration.
| Company | Positioning | Stage / Funding | Notable Differentiator | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TerraSpark | Modular, LEO-first SBSP targeting remote industrial & disaster relief. | Pre-Seed, ~$6.2M (2025). | European focus; modular architecture for incremental scaling; founding team combines ESA program leadership (Solaris) with high-growth tech scaling. | [Renewables Now, Feb 2025], [LinkedIn], [thenextweb.com] |
| Virtus Solis | Developing GEO-based SBSP systems for utility-scale power. | Seed, $8M (2023). | Led by former SpaceX engineer John Bucknell; focused on high-power GEO architecture and microwave power transmission. | [SpaceNews, 2023] |
| Space Solar (UK) | UK government-backed consortium aiming for a demonstrator by 2030. | Government & consortium funding. | Strong institutional backing via UK Space Agency and major aerospace partners (Airbus, Cambridge University). | [UK Government, 2023] |
| Caltech's Space Solar Power Project | Academic research initiative demonstrating key technologies. | Research grants (e.g., $100M from Donald Bren). | Pioneering light-weight, deployable structures; successful in-space power transmission demonstration in 2023. | [Caltech, 2023] |
| Reflect Orbital | Focused on beaming solar power to existing terrestrial solar farms to boost output. | Early-stage, funding undisclosed. | 'Hybrid' model that augments ground-based infrastructure, potentially lowering initial deployment risk. | Company website |
Competition in space-based solar power currently clusters around two primary architectural philosophies. The first, exemplified by Virtus Solis and the UK's Space Solar consortium, pursues the traditional, large-scale geostationary orbit (GEO) model, targeting baseload power for grids. The second, which includes TerraSpark and Reflect Orbital, advocates for a phased, lower-orbit approach, aiming for earlier commercial viability with smaller, modular systems serving off-grid or microgrid applications. Adjacent substitutes are formidable: terrestrial renewable energy plus storage continues to see rapid cost declines, and nuclear microreactors are emerging as another potential solution for remote, resilient power. The competitive map, therefore, is less about head-to-head customer wins today and more about which technological and financing path can first demonstrate a compelling levelized cost of energy (LCOE) against these terrestrial alternatives.
TerraSpark's most tangible edge lies in its founding team's specific composition, a blend that is rare in the sector. CTO Sanjay Vijendran's former leadership of the European Space Agency's Solaris program provides deep institutional knowledge and regulatory credibility within the European space ecosystem [euronews.com, 2025]. This is paired with CEO Jasper Deprez's experience scaling Tradler, a global HRTech platform, and COO Matthias Laug's operational background from co-founding and scaling Tier Mobility, a capital-intensive hardware-enabled service [thenextweb.com, TechCrunch]. This combination suggests a team capable of navigating both the profound technical hurdles and the venture-scale operational challenges ahead. The durability of this edge is perishable, however, as success will ultimately hinge on translating this credibility into executed hardware milestones and securing follow-on capital orders of magnitude larger than the pre-seed round.
The company's most significant exposure is to competitors with deeper, more established capital networks and flight heritage. The UK's Space Solar consortium benefits from direct government funding and the engineering might of Airbus, providing a potentially faster path to a space demonstrator. Virtus Solis, while also early-stage, is led by a founder with direct SpaceX experience in propulsion and launch systems, a background highly relevant to the launch cost challenges inherent to SBSP. TerraSpark's modular LEO approach, while reducing initial system complexity, may face skepticism regarding the economic path to gigawatt-scale power, where GEO's constant illumination and larger aperture sizes offer theoretical advantages. Furthermore, the company has not yet publicly disclosed partnerships with launch providers or satellite manufacturers, a gap that more resource-rich competitors may already be addressing.
The most plausible 18-month scenario will see the field narrow as technical and fundraising milestones approach. The winner, in this near-term frame, will be the entity that successfully closes a substantial Series A (likely >$30M) anchored by investors with deep climate tech and aerospace conviction, and that announces a firm contract with a launch provider. A loser would be a team that fails to progress beyond lab demonstrations or that sees its modular approach de-risked and adopted by a better-funded incumbent. For TerraSpark, the next phase is a race to convert its European regulatory and team credibility into a tangible, funded hardware roadmap that convinces the market its phased LEO strategy is not just feasible, but the most capital-efficient route to a first commercial sale.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW, Competitor data is compiled from public announcements and company materials; funding stages for private companies like Virtus Solis and Reflect Orbital are not uniformly disclosed. TerraSpark's differentiation is based on its public positioning.
Opportunity
PUBLIC The prize for TerraSpark is the creation of a new, globally distributed energy infrastructure layer, decoupled from terrestrial constraints and capable of delivering baseload power to any point on Earth.
The headline opportunity for TerraSpark is to become the first commercially viable provider of space-based solar power, establishing a de facto standard for orbital energy transmission. This outcome is reachable not as a speculative moonshot but as a staged commercial rollout, beginning with serving high-value, off-grid industrial and emergency power markets. The company's wedge is a pragmatic focus on Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and modular systems, contrasting with traditional SBSP concepts that target large-scale, geostationary platforms from the outset [LinkedIn]. This approach aims to prove the technology and economics with smaller, iterative deployments before scaling. The founding team's blend of deep space engineering credibility, through CTO Sanjay Vijendran's leadership of the European Space Agency's Solaris initiative, and proven operational scaling experience from CEO Jasper Deprez and COO Matthias Laug, provides a credible foundation to navigate the dual challenges of advanced engineering and capital-intensive project development [thefuturismtoday.com, thenextweb.com].
Growth from a pilot-stage company to a major energy player would likely follow one of several concrete paths, each with identifiable catalysts.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Remote Industrial Anchor | TerraSpark becomes the preferred power provider for major mining, data center, or desalination projects in remote locations, displacing expensive and polluting diesel generators. | A signed power purchase agreement (PPA) with a multinational resource company for a multi-megawatt pilot. | The company explicitly targets "remote industries" as an initial market, and the economics of delivered power could undercut diesel in many regions if the stated LCOE target of 3 cents/kWh is achieved [F6S, 2025]. |
| Sovereign Resilience Partner | National governments, particularly island nations or countries seeking energy independence, contract TerraSpark for strategic energy security and disaster recovery capabilities. | A memorandum of understanding (MoU) or feasibility study funded by a European or Asian government. | The mission statement cites "island nations" and "disaster zones" as primary use cases, aligning with growing state-level interest in energy resilience [LinkedIn]. Luxembourg's space-friendly jurisdiction provides a diplomatic advantage. |
| Orbital Infrastructure Platform | The company's modular "sunsat" architecture becomes a licensed platform for other entities (e.g., telecom satellites) to host power-beaming payloads, creating a new revenue stream. | Successful demonstration of the core wireless power transmission technology from a partner's satellite platform. | The modular design philosophy suggests a productized approach to the space segment, which could be abstracted into a service for other orbital operators [Renewables Now, Feb 2025]. |
Compounding success in this field would be driven by a classic infrastructure flywheel: early deployments generate revenue, technical data, and operational credibility. Each successful power-beaming mission would de-risk the technology for regulators and insurers, lower the cost of capital for subsequent projects, and attract talent and partners. The proprietary data on system performance, orbital operations, and atmospheric transmission efficiency would create a technical moat, informing iterative design improvements that competitors without flight heritage could not match. While still pre-revenue, the €5.4 million pre-seed round provides the initial capital to begin spinning this flywheel with ground-based wireless demonstrations targeted for 2026 [thefuturismtoday.com].
The size of the win, should a major growth scenario materialize, is substantial. A credible comparable is the valuation of companies in adjacent frontier energy or space infrastructure sectors. For instance, Relativity Space, a company industrializing 3D-printed rocket manufacturing, achieved a multi-billion dollar valuation while still developing its core technology. If TerraSpark can secure its first commercial PPA and demonstrate reliable transmission, it could command a valuation reflecting the option value on a future multi-gigawatt orbital power network. Translating a portion of the addressable market for remote industrial power,a segment measured in tens of billions of dollars annually,into a captive revenue stream would support a unicorn-scale outcome (scenario, not a forecast). The ultimate prize is a stake in what the European Space Agency has identified as a potential trillion-euro future industry for space-based solar power.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Opportunity analysis is based on stated company targets and comparable sector valuations; specific catalysts and growth paths are forward-looking projections.
Sources
PUBLIC
[Renewables Now, Feb 2025] Space-based solar firm TerraSpark raises funds for pilot applications | https://renewablesnow.com/news/space-based-solar-firm-terraspark-raises-funds-for-pilot-applications-1292355/
[LinkedIn] TerraSpark Company Profile | https://www.linkedin.com/company/terraspark-energy
[euronews.com, 2025] TerraSpark raises €5.4 million to beam solar power from space | https://www.euronews.com/next/2025/02/20/terraspark-raises-54-million-to-beam-solar-power-from-space
[TechCrunch, 2020] Tier Mobility, the European e-scooter rentals startup, adds new COO and CCO to executive team | https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/05/tier-mobility-executives/
[thenextweb.com] TerraSpark raises €5M+ to beam solar power from orbit to Earth | https://thenextweb.com/news/terraspark-5m-pre-seed-space-based-solar-power
[F6S, 2025] Terraspark SARL | https://www.f6s.com/company/terraspark-sarl
[thefuturismtoday.com] TerraSpark: Europe's Answer to Space-Based Solar Power | https://thefuturismtoday.com/terraspark-europes-answer-to-space-based-solar-power/
[Spotify, 2026] Matthias Laug from TIER on charging innovation, power of self-managed teams, and the role of technology | https://open.spotify.com/episode/3mN9nSLDTSc096lamEpynM
[terraspark.energy] TerraSpark Homepage | https://terraspark.energy
[Fraunhofer ISE, 2021] Space-Based Solar Power: A Technical, Economic and Operational Assessment | https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en/publications/studies/space-based-solar-power.html
[UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, 2021] Space Based Solar Power: A Technical, Economic and Operational Assessment | https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/space-based-solar-power-a-technical-economic-and-operational-assessment
[Global Market Insights, 2022] Microgrid Market Size | https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/microgrid-market
[ESA] SOLARIS | https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/SOLARIS
[SpaceNews, 2023] Virtus Solis raises $8 million for space-based solar power | https://spacenews.com/virtus-solis-raises-8-million-for-space-based-solar-power/
[UK Government, 2023] UK takes major step towards space-based solar power | https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-takes-major-step-towards-space-based-solar-power
[Caltech, 2023] Space Solar Power Project | https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/space-solar-power-project
[Company website] Reflect Orbital | https://www.reflectorbital.com
Articles about TerraSpark
- TerraSpark's €5.4 Million Pre-Seed Funds a European Bet on Space-Based Solar — The Luxembourg startup, led by a former ESA Solaris lead and a Tier Mobility co-founder, plans to beam power from orbit to remote industries by 2028.