Austrian SpaceTech company Tumbleweed has raised €6.9 million in a Seed funding round. The company says this is the largest Seed round ever raised by a SpaceTech startup in Austria. The funding comes four months after Tumbleweed launched the country’s first commercial satellite into orbit.
The round was led by PactVC, with participation from Vanagon Ventures, early investor Prototype Capital and EWOR. More than one-third of Tumbleweed’s 25 team members also invested their own money in the company.
“This funding will allow us to scale what we’ve proven on our first mission, Oasis Alpha: that microgravity can be a widely accessible industrial resource. We’re so excited to be able to bring this transformative capability to even more customers, and ultimately build a future where microgravity is used to make 10x better cures for cancer, 10x better semiconductors and 10x faster developed pharmaceuticals,” says Julian Rothenbuchner, Tumbleweed CEO and co-founder.
“The fact that Austrian space technology is mobilising international private capital and is already being used commercially in space sends an important signal about the strength of our research and business location. Companies like these strengthen domestic value creation, create skilled jobs, and demonstrate that Austria is internationally competitive in demanding future technologies,” adds Peter Hanke, Austrian Federal Minister for Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure.
Founded in 2024, Tumbleweed develops and sells modular containers called Pods for laboratories, manufacturers and research teams. These Pods are designed to carry equipment and manage power, data and certification requirements.
Tumbleweed put Austria’s first commercial satellite in orbit in less time than it usually takes to certify a single experiment. Julian has done exactly what he told us he would do when we first met him, only faster. Now every lab and manufacturer can use space without becoming a space company first,” says Daniel Dippold, CEO of EWOR.
Tumbleweed’s first mission, called Oasis Alpha, launched aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-17 on 7 July 2026. It carried experiments from four customers, all of whom were using space-based services for the first time. The mission was fully booked a year before launch, with all customers paying in advance.
