The Elwing Company

From the February 2012 (issue 154) Satellite Finance (subscription only), an interview with editor Ed Ansell.

Elwing looks for US$25m to capitalise on in-space propulsion technology

Satellite propulsion systems start-up The Elwing Company is actively seeking to raise up to
US$25m in new venture funding in order help bring its technology to market.

Speaking to SatelliteFinance, Gregory Emsellem, the founder and CEO of Elwing, said that the company was planning a full flight demonstration of its in-space propulsion technology within the next three years and that the company was now looking at raising fresh financing to help it achieve this.

Emsellem said: “Our development plan for the next three years will cost approximately US$25m. While we anticipate that our activity, both with governments and industry partners, will cover a part of it, we are indeed actively engaging and planning to engage more institutional investors to finance a potentially large part of this development of the company.”

Up to this point, Emsellem said that Elwing had been privately funded by angel investors, including himself. He added that potential new investors would more likely come from the private equity rather than venture capital community, particularly those funds that already hold stakes in space companies.

Founded in 2002, Elwing designs and commercialises electric propulsion systems for satellites and spacecraft. More specifically, the company leverages its proprietary electrodeless plasma thruster technology that Emsellem developed at the turn of the millennium.

Emsellem claims that this technology will enable satellites to increase the size of the payload by as much as 700kg, meaning a significant increase in the number of transponders or hosted payloads on a single spacecraft.

While commercial operations are some way away, Elwing is already in negotiations with both government and commercial partners over integrating the technology into forthcoming satellites. This is in part because any partners would need between 18 and 24 months to modify their spacecraft design.

In spite of this modification requirement, Emsellem said that the company has had plenty of interest in the technology.

“The potential impact that our propulsion system could bring is so large that we find that our partners are willing to take the risk. The risk reward balance is high enough to be worth it,” he said.

To that end, the company is currently in an advanced stage of talks with around six major satellite manufacturers and expects to formally announce a number of partnership contracts in the next few weeks.

Though the in-space propulsion market is at an early stage, there are a number of competitors developing their own technology. These include Snecma, the France-based aerospace engine developer that is owned by SAFRAN, Aerojet, a subsidiary of US-based technology manufacturer GenCorp, and space communications systems developer L-3 Communications.

Emsellem, though, is confident of his company’s position, stating: “We are the only company solely focused on in-space propulsion, and this marketing approach along with our exclusive technology give us solid assets to spur the growth of this market.”

As to whether the company’s proprietary technology might see it become an acquisition target for either its competitors or prime contractors, Emsellem said that the company had already had quite advanced discussions with some of its competitors with two or three saying they were potentially interested in buying the company. However, he remained confident that the company could thrive independently.

“We definitely see the company as self-standing in this niche and so we have the opportunity to make it on our own,” Emsellem said.