Space Pharma Reentry Capsule Maker Varda Space Raises $251M Series D

The center of gravity in space manufacturing is shifting from launch to return. Varda Space has raised a $251 million Series D, bringing its total funding to $598 million.

Why reentry is the hard part

Getting something into orbit has become routine. Getting it back down in one piece is an entirely different problem. Objects in orbit travel at roughly 27,000 km/h — about Mach 25. Slam that straight into the atmosphere and friction with the air pushes surface temperatures into the thousands of degrees. A reentry capsule has to solve two problems at once: a heat shield that protects the capsule (and whatever it’s carrying) from that heat, and a guidance system precise enough to calculate its own trajectory, deploy a parachute, and land within a tight target zone. Doing both repeatably and cheaply is the real engineering challenge. Varda Space built its own reentry capsules to do exactly that, using them to crystallize pharmaceutical ingredients in microgravity before bringing them back to Earth. Without gravity pulling on a growing crystal, the structures that form are far purer and more uniform than anything possible on the ground.

Since its first mission in 2023, Varda has completed six successful reentries, with dozens more launches and reentries planned through 2028. The fact that its W-Series capsules can repeatedly recreate Mach 25 reentry conditions opened up a second business entirely. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has flown its own payloads on Varda’s capsules, and in late 2024 signed a four-year, $48 million contract to use them as a platform for testing military hardware under hypersonic conditions — a far cheaper way to gather real Mach-25 flight data than flying a dedicated test vehicle. In effect, Varda’s business now rests on two pillars: pharmaceutical manufacturing and defense testing.

The company has also drawn academic attention for crystallizing the HIV drug ritonavir into a structure never seen on Earth — a discovery with the potential to change how the drug is formulated.

Varda was founded in 2021 by Will Bruey, a former SpaceX engineer, and Delian Asparouhov, a partner at Founders Fund. Asparouhov still holds the title of President, combining an operating role with his position as an investor.

The $251 million round was co-led by Lux Capital and Natural Capital, with participation from Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, General Catalyst, 8090 Industries, Giant Step, and Also Capital. Varda started with a $9 million seed round backed by Founders Fund and Lux Capital in 2020, raised a $42 million Series A in 2021, and became a unicorn with a $187 million Series C last July. The new capital will go toward increasing launch and reentry cadence and deepening pharmaceutical partnerships as the company works toward delivering the first medicine made in space to patients on Earth.

The Competition

Competition among reentry capsule makers splits along what they’re bringing back. UK-based SpaceForge is betting on semiconductor crystal growth instead of pharmaceuticals. It raised a $30 million Series A led by the NATO Innovation Fund in May 2025, the largest Series A ever raised by a UK space-tech company. Outpost Space is scaling up the hardware itself, developing a shipping-container-sized reentry vehicle called Carryall that can bring back up to 10 tons of cargo; its focus is military logistics rather than pharma, and it secured $33.2 million from the US Space Force’s SpaceWERX. The most threatening new entrant is SpaceX, whose Starfall reentry capsule completed its first test flight this June. Starfall can carry up to 1,000 kg, dwarfing Varda’s capsules — meaning a company that already dominates launch is now going after the return trip too, making it the rival Varda has the most reason to watch.