Weil has advised Balderton Capital (Balderton), one of the leading venture capital investors in Europe, in the Series C funding round of The Exploration Company GmbH (TEC). The financing is subject to customary regulatory approvals.

The Exploration Company (TEC) is a German-French space company, which develops the full stack of space transportation including reusable capsules and high-thrust engines. TEC will use the new funds to advance its Nyx reusable capsule toward a mission to dock with the International Space Station and return to earth, while accelerating development of the high-thrust reusable Storm rocket engine.

With $450 million USD, the funding round was the largest Series C by a European space company. The funding round was led jointly by Bessemer Venture Partners, Atomico and the Scaleup Europe Fund, managed by EQT and was supported by existing shareholders such as Balderton, Plural, Cherry Ventures and Red River West. Having already participated as a lead investor in the previous funding round in 2024, Balderton continues to be one of TEC’s key investors.

With this engagement, Weil continues to deepen its expertise in the venture capital space and confirms its position in the rapidly growing aerospace sector.

The transaction team was led by Private Equity partner Manuel-Peter Fringer (Munich) and included partner Niklas Brüggemann (Regulatory, Munich) and associates Manuel Schmutzler, Hannah Bischoff (both Private Equity, Munich) and Lucas Valio Ottowitz (Regulatory, Munich).