Spanish launch provider PLD Space has secured €180 million in a Series C funding round led by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, which invested €50 million and committed as the company’s strategic partner and launch customer. The funding, announced on March 4, 2026, elevates PLD Space’s total capital raised beyond €350 million, excluding €169 million from the European Space Agency’s European Launcher Challenge program.
Mitsubishi Electric aims to combine PLD Space’s launch capabilities with its satellite expertise to meet global customer needs, according to Tomonori Sato, Executive Office and Group President, Defense & Space Systems. Other participants include Spain’s Centre for the Development of Technology and Innovation via its INNVIERTE fund, COFIDES through its FOCO co-investment fund, and Nazca Capital’s aerospace vehicle. Banco Santander provided financial advisory, with Deloitte as legal counsel.
The capital will accelerate industrial production, testing, and infrastructure for the MIURA 5 orbital rocket, a 35-meter, two-stage vehicle capable of delivering 1,040 kg to low Earth orbit. PLD Space targets its first MIURA 5 launch in 2026 from a new CNES facility at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, following the successful MIURA 1 suborbital flight on October 7, 2023. Commercial operations are set for 2027, with ambitions for 30 annual launches by 2030. Existing contracts include a dedicated flight for Sateliot. PLD Space, founded in 2011 in Elche, develops reusable liquid-propellant rockets in-house to cut costs and support small satellite deployments, particularly in Asia.
“This financing reinforces our technological and industrial leadership in the launcher market,” stated Executive President Ezequiel Sánchez.