Hanwha Asset Management Invests in U.S. "Impulse Space" Through Project Fund

Participated in four consecutive funding rounds
Shared overseas deep-tech investment opportunities with domestic investors

Hanwha Asset Management said Thursday that it had invested in U.S. space company Impulse Space’s Series D1 round by setting up a project fund backed by four domestic institutions.

Hanwha Asset Management has been the only Asian investor in Impulse Space since its Series B round. With this investment, it has participated in four consecutive rounds.

Impulse Space was founded in 2021 by Tom Mueller, a founding member of SpaceX who served as its chief technology officer (CTO) for more than 10 years and led the development of the Merlin engine. The company is developing orbital transfer vehicles that move satellites and cargo to their target orbits after launch vehicles place them in orbit. Its low-Earth-orbit transfer vehicle, Mira, has successfully completed three missions to date.

Impulse Space is currently developing Helios, a vehicle designed to deliver payloads directly to geostationary orbit, and is participating with U.S. defense company Anduril in the U.S. next-generation missile defense program, Golden Dome.

In June, Impulse Space raised approximately $500 million, bringing its cumulative funding to more than $1 billion. Founders Fund, led by Peter Thiel, a prominent figure in the U.S. investment industry, is among its major shareholders.

The investment is significant because Hanwha Asset Management shared a co-investment opportunity in a high-quality overseas deep-tech company that it had secured with domestic institutions and professional investors interested in U.S. technology companies. Hanwha Asset Management set up the project fund directly, providing domestic institutions with a channel to invest in a leading global space industry company. During the fund’s formation, many institutions expressed interest in investing, and four selected institutions participated.

Hanwha Asset Management’s ability to identify promising deep-tech companies is also evident in its other portfolio holdings. In the space sector, these include ICEYE, SpaceX and Varda Space. In artificial intelligence (AI), it has invested in OpenAI, Mistral AI, Groq, Project Prometheus, Thrive Holdings, Mercor and ElevenLabs. Its robotics investments include Physical Intelligence, Skild AI and 1X. The company has built its portfolio through direct investments in global deep-tech companies, including Radiant in next-generation energy and Shield AI and HavocAI in defense.

“The investment relationships we have built with global deep-tech companies from an early stage made this investment possible,” said Dongjun Lim, CEO of Hanwha Asset Management. “We will leverage our experience and network in U.S. AI and deep-tech investments to become an asset manager that provides customers with forward-looking financial products that lead the market.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.