Vienna- and Delft-based spacetech startup Tumbleweed, which develops modular orbital laboratories for microgravity research, has raised €6.9 million in a seed round led by PactVC, with participation from Vanagon Ventures, Prototype Capital, EWOR, and international investors and business angels.
- Founded in 2024 by Julian Rothenbuchner, Leonhard Goliasch, and Guillaume Brault. Tumbleweed provides researchers, manufacturers and R&D teams with access to microgravity experiments without requiring them to develop their own space infrastructure.
- Its technology combines modular laboratory Pods with Oasis, a free-flying orbital platform that hosts experiments in space.
- The startup launched Austria's first commercial satellite, Oasis Alpha, in July 2026 aboard SpaceX Transporter-17. Built in nine months, the mission carried experiments for four paying customers, all of whom were first-time users of space-based research. The mission was fully booked a year before launch.
Details of the deal
- With the fresh capital, the firm aims to scale its modular orbital laboratories and make microgravity research more accessible to businesses and research institutions. Tumbleweed is also preparing three missions planned for 2027, which are expected to carry more than ten customers from sectors including medical research, biotechnology and agritech.
- The company is further developing Oasis Beta, scheduled for 2028, which will introduce re-entry capabilities and allow customers to retrieve physical samples from orbit for further analysis.
