SAN FRANCISCO – Space startup veteran Mark Matossian has joined forces with a software engineer and a best-selling author to establish Whipsmart Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on space and deep tech.
Whipsmart will identify “pivotal technologies that can close a business plan” and help companies make the leap from laboratories to scaling up, said Matossian, who led Iceye U.S., program management, satellite production and launch for Terra Bella, and co-founded Lonestar Data Holdings.
Matossian co-founded Whipsmart earlier this year with Lylan Masterman, a software developer and technology executive who became a venture capitalist in 2014, and Judy Robinette, corporate leader, venture capitalist and author of “How to be a Power Connector” and “Cracking the Funding Code.”
Series A funding
Space technology companies raised $7.5 billion in the second quarter of 2026, according to the Seraphim Space Index. Still, startups often struggle to cross the so-called “Valley of Death” between proving their technology in a laboratory and reaching commercial scale.
“I’ve lived this through a number of startups,” Matossian said. “There is pre-seed and seed money out there, and there’s funding for Series B and beyond. The middle ground has been insufficiently funded.”
Whipsmart will lead and co-lead investment rounds for companies with 10 to 20.
“Maybe they’ve done a prototype flight,” Matossian said. “But do they have the final product-market fit? And can they turn the corner of that inflection point and go to scale?”
“It’s the classical definition of Series A,” said Masterman.
Supporting companies moving toward commercial scale is particularly important through economic cycles of space investment, Matossian said. “When there’s a downturn and bubbles burst, quality startups need to be coached to manage cash carefully.”
Instead of writing many small checks, Whipsmart will make significant investments.
“We’ll often take a board seat, and our percentage of ownership will be greater,” Masterman said. “We want to be the first phone call for entrepreneurs, whether something good or bad is happening.”
Seven Disruptions
Whipsmart is looking to invest in seven areas where technology is disrupting traditional industries:
- Secure and reliable position, navigation and timing;
- Robotics and autonomous operations to enhance human productivity;
- Real-time intelligence to detect and react to disasters, industrial hazards, military threats and climate risks;
- Regional and sovereign technology for defense, cloud infrastructure, space systems, manufacturing, communications and critical resources;
- Edge processing and orbital compute;
- Resilient, distributed energy; and
- Global, affordable broadband connectivity.
In addition, Whipsmart will “invest in exceptional SpaceTech and DeepTech companies that fall outside” the seven disruptive categories identified, according to the company’s website.