CAS Space, also known by its Chinese name Zhongke Yuhang, has sealed a 600-million-yuan ($86.9 million) Series C round led by state investor Guangzhou Industrial Investment and Capital Operation Holding Group.
The round, joined by existing shareholders that are both affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) — CAS Investment and CAS Capital — will help the firm in the mass production of solid rockets as well as in the R&D of liquid-propellant rocket and rocket recycling technology, according to a company announcement on Sunday.
Founded in December 2018, CAS Space is partly owned by CAS. It previously notched 200 million yuan ($29 million) in an extended Series B round, bringing the total funding raised to 600 million yuan ($86.9 million), as of May 2021.
Some of the firm’s backers include CAS Star, a CAS-backed hard-tech investment firm; Yuexiu Industrial Investment Fund, a private equity (PE) firm focusing on southern China’s Greater Bay Area (GBA); and hard-tech-focused V Fund, among others.
The Guangzhou-based firm conducted a successful vertical landing test at sea in April — with developers from CAS saying that the technology could be the cornerstone for space travel, Chinese state media Global Times reported.
In February, Guangzhou Industrial Investment and Capital Operation Holding Group set up two new fund of funds with a combined 200 billion yuan ($29.2 billion) in capital to invest across a broad range of sectors targeting firms from early stage to large scale, according to a report published by Chinese news site Caixin.
The Holding Group is a state-backed group founded in 2016 with 90% of its funding coming from the Guangdong government and 10% from the Department of Finance of Guangdong Province, per Caixin.