Estonian venture fund Plural invests in US startup Karman+

Estonian venture capital fund Plural, together with Antwerp-based investment company Hummingbird, has led a round for US startup Karman+. Other investors in the startup include French fund HCVC, Kevin Mahaffey, founder of technology company Lookout, and other business angels. US startup Karman+ has raised $20M for its mission to mine space resources from near-Earth asteroids. 

Karman+ is a company founded in 2021 that focuses on extracting energy and resources from near-Earth asteroids. Founders: Teun van den Dries, Deynan Krall and Lorenzo Dorigo. The company was originally based in the Netherlands, but moved to Denver, USA in November 2022.

Karman+ will use the funds raised to accelerate the realization of High Frontier, Karman+'s first technical demonstration mission, scheduled for launch in 2027. High Frontier will be aimed at validating the company's approach to deep space mining, testing autonomous navigation systems and mining equipment for mining regolith on asteroids in weightless conditions.

According to Sten Tamkivi, Plural's managing partner, in the long term, opening up the space economy will be critical to improving our resilience here on Earth to address issues like climate change with access to these critical materials.

Plural, founded in 2022 in Estonia by Stan Tamkivi, Taavet Hinrikus, Ian Hogarth and Khaled Heloui, specializes in raising early stage investments between €1M and €10M. In 2024, the company raised an additional €100M for its latest €400M fund, bringing the total to €500M.