WASHINGTON — K2 Space has raised $500 million in new funding, more than doubling its valuation in seven months as the satellite manufacturer prepares to move from orbital demonstrations to large commercial and military orders.

The Series D round values the Torrance, Calif., company at $6.8 billion, K2 said July 30. Kleiner Perkins and ICONIQ led the investment, with participation from CapitalG, Lightspeed, Altimeter, Spark Capital, Sands Capital, ARK Invest, T. Rowe Price Associates and existing investors.

K2 was valued at $3 billion in December, when it raised a $250 million Series C. At the time, the company said it had secured $500 million in signed government and commercial contracts. It now puts that figure at more than $1 billion and says it has raised over $1 billion in total capital.

The new financing gives K2 the resources to expand production as it works toward the capacity to build as many as 100 large satellites a year, co-founder and Chief Executive Karan Kunjur said in the company’s announcement.

That target marks a new phase for the four-year-old company. K2 has raised money quickly and demonstrated systems in orbit. It must now show that it can manufacture complex spacecraft repeatedly, control costs and meet delivery schedules for customers with multiyear programs.

K2 is pursuing a strategy that runs against much of the satellite industry’s recent history. For years, manufacturers sought to make spacecraft smaller and lighter, partly because launch capacity was scarce and expensive. K2 is betting that falling launch prices and larger rockets will make mass less of a constraint.

K2 designs larger spacecraft intended to provide more electrical power and carry heavier payloads, including communications equipment, sensors, defense systems and computing hardware.

Its Mega-class satellite is designed to carry as much as 3,000 kilograms of payload and generate tens of kilowatts of power. A planned Giga-class platform would increase power to about 100 kilowatts and accommodate substantially larger payloads.

K2 has presented Giga as a possible foundation for placing large amounts of computing capacity in orbit, an idea being explored by companies that see space-based data centers as a future market. Chief Technology Officer and co-founder Neel Kunjur said the company plans to introduce the spacecraft in the second half of 2028.

Rapid funding climb

Brothers Karan and Neel Kunjur founded K2 in 2022 and brought the company out of stealth the following year.

It raised an $8.5 million seed round led by First Round Capital and Republic Capital, followed by another $7 million financing in 2023. K2 then raised a $50 million Series A in February 2024, a $110 million Series B in February 2025 and the $250 million Series C in December.

The size and pace of the rounds reflect investor interest in businesses serving both commercial space customers and the U.S. national-security market. Government spending has become an important source of revenue and technical support for younger space companies, particularly as the Pentagon seeks alternatives to traditional aerospace contractors.

K2 says it produces more than 85% of its satellite platform internally. The company operates a 180,000-square-foot factory in Torrance designed to produce as many as 100 satellites annually. It has also opened an engineering office near Seattle and said in July that it employed nearly 300 people.

Testing technology in orbit

K2’s first flight was a smaller demonstration mission launched in January 2025. It tested company-developed flight computers, reaction wheels, avionics and software before those systems were incorporated into a full-size spacecraft.

The company followed with Gravitas, a roughly 2 metric-ton Mega-class satellite launched in March. The spacecraft carries 12 payloads and is operating in orbit.

Gravitas is intended to demonstrate a high-power electric-propulsion system and an orbit-raising maneuver from low Earth orbit toward medium Earth orbit. K2 says its dual-channel Hall-effect thrusters are the most powerful electric thrusters currently operating in space.

The roughly $60 million project received support through a U.S. Space Force Strategic Funding Increase, or STRATFI, agreement, which combines government funding with private capital and small-business research awards.

Commercial and defense orders

K2’s largest disclosed commercial project is tied to a planned SES communications network in medium Earth orbit.

K2 is also building a position in U.S. defense programs.

The company is supplying satellite platforms to an Anduril Industries-led team working on space-based interceptors for Golden Dome for America, the proposed U.S. missile-defense system.

K2 has said its Mega-class spacecraft will host Anduril’s interceptor systems. The companies haven’t disclosed the value of K2’s portion of the program.

K2 was also selected as a satellite-bus provider for the Space Force’s Protected Tactical Satcom-Global program, its first role in a formal Pentagon program of record.

Under that effort, K2 will provide a spacecraft to a team led by SES Space & Defense. The planned satellite is intended to deliver protected, anti-jam communications from geostationary orbit for military users operating in contested environments.

K2’s next mission, Trinity, is scheduled to launch in the second quarter of 2027. The mission is expected to carry multiple satellites, place them into different orbits and test long-range optical communications.