AstroForge

Founded in 2022, as a part of Y Combinator's W22 cohort, AstroForge is a space mining startup, focusing on deep space exploration, with the company claiming it would be the first commercial company to venture into deep space. The company had two planned missions for 2023 with a third and fourth mission in development, which would be its first refining mission to bring back platinum to earth. To obtain low-cost rideshare options, AstroForge is targeting lightweight operations–with payloads of less than 200 kg–and is focusing on asteroids containing high concentrations of the six platinum-group metals, including platinum and iridium, rather than water or other minerals.

Key customers and partnerships

As of February 2023, the company had a partnership with OrbAstro to provide a satellite for its demo mission as well as supply its spacecraft for the company’s first deep space mission. AstroForge was also working closely with university advisors, NASA, and Planetary Science Institute to gauge the most promising asteroids for its missions.

AstroForge announced it was to be using SpaceX’s Transporter-7 to provide rideshare services for its 6U cubesat launch in April 2023. In January 2023 , the company entered into an agreement with space debris management company Intuitive machines to launch Bokkr-2 deep space vehicle for observation of one of AstroForge’s target asteroids in deep space. This mission was expected to take place in 2H 2023 along with Intuitive Machines’ lunar mission.

Funding and financials

In April 2022, the company raised USD 13 million in a seed funding round led by Initialized Capital, along with the participation from Seven Seven Six, EarthRise, Area VC, Liquid 2, and Soma. The funding was to be deployed for the company’s first two missions to kickstart its operations.