SpaceX alumni's TerraFirma raises $115M for remote-controlled construction
What's the deal? TerraFirmaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a construction tech startup founded in 2024 by two former SpaceX engineers, raised $115 million, the company said on Tuesday. The round included a $100 million Series A led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures and angel investors including founders and engineers from SpaceX, AndurilDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Hadrian.
What's the endgame? The Austin-based company uses interfaces, including Xbox controllers, to remotely operate construction equipment, and says its tools cut costs and improve safety. Long term, it wants to build on Mars. It will use the funding to hire 300 employees over the next year and build a Texas factory and a mission control centre.
Who's behind it? Co-founders Noah Schochet and Noah McGuinness met on the first day of engineering class at Princeton University about a decade ago. Both later joined SpaceX — McGuinness on the Starshield satellite programme, Schochet on Starlink and later Starship.
Why now? The founders say the contrast between SpaceX's pace and the construction industry sparked the idea. "We're building rockets the size of skyscrapers at one a month, and all those processes for mass manufacturing automation, none of them are showing up in construction," Schochet said.
What could go wrong? For now, TerraFirma is focused on proving its technology on Earth, with recent commercial projects including a sports arena and a Starbucks. Schochet acknowledges the limits of chasing an off-world market. "The problem is you don't want to build a community based around a space economy that doesn't yet exist," he said.
The signal: TerraFirma joins a growing network of startups spun out of SpaceX, alongside hypersonic weapons maker Castelion and Relativity Space. SpaceX's $86 billion IPO last month and NASA's push for a lunar base have sparked fresh optimism for the sector — even as most of the promised space economy remains a bet on the future.
Read more: CNBC
