Astroforge raises $13M seed round for asteroid mining ambitions

Although we have known for a long time that asteroids are potentially profitable stores of precious minerals, we have never been able to get to the bottom of it. Astroforge wants to be the first company to mine an asteroid and bring the material back to Earth, and it hopes to do so by the end of the decade.

Astroforge has closed a $13 million seed round and will use it to fund its first two missions, including an initial demonstration flight that is scheduled to launch next year. Initialized Capital led the seed round with investments from Seven Seven Six, EarthRise, Aera VC, Liquid 2 and Soma.

Astroforge's two co-founders, Gialich and Jose Acain, say they have developed an innovative technique to refine materials in-space, but for now, they are staying mostly mum on what it involves, and how it solved. They shared that the technology requires a high-rated vacuum and zero-G to work. Astroforge will not be landing on an asteroid, as they will be targeting bodies in the 20 meter to 1.5 kilometer range, meaning that some will be so small that they won't even have a gravity field.

There are a few other clues to the company's future plans. By the sounds of it, they are targeting a relatively lightweight operation, likely with a less than 200 kilogram payload, to take advantage of affordable launches to lunar and other destinations. They are going after asteroids with high concentrations of the six Platinum-group metals, including Platinum and iridium.

Astroforge is moving fast and it is a lofty ambition. The company has lined up a partnership with OrbAstro to manufacture the first satellite for the demo mission. There are a number of asteroids that have a good concentration of Platinum-group metals. The company is interested in just under a million asteroids, and there will be no shortage of them.

Matt Gialich is a co- founder of Astroforge. Astroforge is a image.

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