Stoke Space Secures $1 B Series E to Accelerate Fully Reusable Rocket Program

Stoke Space Technologies announced the “initial closing” of a $1 billion Series E financing round. The round was led by Point72 Ventures and Spark Capital and included investors such as General Innovation, Glade Brook Capital, US Innovative Technology, Washington Harbour Partners, Woven Capital, and Y Combinator. The capital is earmarked for scaling production infrastructure, increasing flight cadence, and developing a second-generation vehicle. With the new money, total funding raised by Stoke now reaches $2.3 billion.

TechCrunch

The company’s first vehicle, the Nova Pathfinder, is designed as a fully reusable two-stage rocket that will employ an active-cooling heat shield—super-cooled liquid hydrogen circulated through the shield to protect the payload-carrying second stage during re-entry. CEO Andy Lapsa says ground testing of the cooling system is complete and the Pathfinder is slated for its maiden flight in early 2027. The Pathfinder can deliver up to three metric tons to low-Earth orbit. Stoke is also progressing on a larger system, the Nova Block 2, which will reuse the same engines and cooling technology to lift roughly 15 metric tons to orbit, a payload slightly above SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Deployment of Block 2 is targeted for 2029.

TechCrunch

Stoke joins a small group of private launch firms—Rocket Lab, Relativity Space, Firefly Aerospace—seeking to challenge SpaceX’s dominance in low-cost access. While SpaceX has invested more than $10 billion in its Starship program, Stoke’s approach focuses on a fully reusable booster and second stage, a capability SpaceX has not yet demonstrated.

TechCrunch

Stoke’s leadership emphasizes confidence in its production pipeline and market timing. Lapsa asserts that multiple Pathfinder vehicles are already in production and that the company will reach orbit regardless of the new financing round. He also frames the timing as critical for deploying satellite constellations that have been “stuck on the ground.”

TechCrunch

• “This round is really to scale,” — CEO Andy Lapsa

TechCrunch

• “We have multiple Pathfinder vehicles in production, and we have confidence that we will bring Pathfinder to market and into orbit regardless of this round,” — Andy Lapsa, CEO

TechCrunch

• “Now is the time to get moving […] so that we can finally start deploying a lot of the constellations and applications that we aspire to as an industry but have been stuck on the ground,” — Andy Lapsa, CEO

TechCrunch