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  • 6/26/2025
  • Reading time 2 min.

TUM spin-off worth over a billion dollars

Isar Aerospace becomes a unicorn

Isar Aerospace, a space company spun off from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), has achieved a company valuation of over a billion dollars and thus unicorn status. This brings the number of TUM unicorns to 22. Isar Aerospace has developed and built its own commercial rocket technology and will transport small and medium-sized satellites into space in the future. The start-up, founded by three graduates, received intensive support from TUM.

Simon Fischer / Wingmen Media
The Isar Aerospace rocket at the Norwegian spaceport in Andøya

Dozens of new technologies require more and more satellites for data transmission – whether for communication networks, autonomous driving, or digital agriculture. To this end, companies want to launch entire swarms of satellites into space. These are comparatively small and are intended to move in low Earth orbits. Isar Aerospace wants to tap into this economic potential. The company, which was already honored with the TUM Presidential Entrepreneurship Award in 2023, completed its first test flight with a 28-meter-high launch vehicle from the Norwegian spaceport Andøya in March 2025.

The company's founders, Daniel Metzler, Josef Fleischmann, and Markus Brandl, studied aerospace engineering at TUM. After founding the company in 2018, they built their first prototypes in the high-tech workshop MakerSpace at UnternehmerTUM, the center for innovation and entrepreneurship at TUM. They also received support from the XPRENEURS incubator. Unternehmertum Venture Capital Partners invested in the start-up alongside several other investors. The company is based in Ottobrunn, near the TUM Department of Aerospace and Geodesy. In a recent financing round, Isar Aerospace raised an additional $150 million from investors, achieving unicorn status.

TUM President Thomas F. Hofmann is delighted: "Isar Aerospace is a great example of how things should work. The founders acquired their expertise at TUM, found each other as a team, and began to revolutionize rocket technology to tap the economic potential of aerospace for Germany! I would like to thank the founders and employees of Isar Aerospace for their pioneering spirit."

Further information and links

The innovation ecosystem centered around TUM is considered one of Europe's most successful deep tech hubs. Its strengths are its strong, diverse network and particular support. In initiatives and co-labs, start-ups work on innovations together with established companies, experts, investors, and administrators. TUM and UnternehmerTUM, the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, support start-up teams with programs precisely tailored to the individual phases of the start-up and the teams. 

TUM Venture Labs offers direct access to cutting-edge research, technical infrastructure, and market expertise in twelve technology fields. Most recently, more than 100 companies were founded at TUM in one year, and more than 1,100 start-up teams were supported by UnternehmerTUM and the Venture Labs. UnternehmerTUM, which invests with its venture capital fund, has been twice voted Europe's best start-up center by the Financial Times.

Technical University of Munich

Corporate Communications Center

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