When early SpaceX engineer Bulent Altan and long-time investor Joram Voelklein surveyed the European space sector at the end of the 2010s, they were surprised: It looked a whole lot like the beginnings of American NewSpace in the early 2000s, when SpaceX and other companies were just setting up shop.
The pair decided to go in early on a personal investment in German launch startup Isar Aerospace, but they also considered making a bigger play to more fully grasp the huge opportunity to help grow the space sector in both the U.S. and Europe. To do that, they established Alpine Space Ventures in Munich, Germany in 2020. Four years later, and after two years of fundraising, they closed their first $184 million (€170 million) fund — the largest first-time VC fund dedicated to space globally.
