Räuberleiter invests in HyImpulse

Räuberleiter joins the Series A financing round of German launch company HyImpulse.

Europe needs affordable, independent access to space. HyImpulse is building exactly that, with rockets that fly on candle wax and a successful maiden flight already behind them.

Räuberleiter Ventures SE has invested a significant amount in HyImpulse Technologies GmbH as part of the company’s Series A financing round. HyImpulse develops hybrid propulsion launch vehicles for small satellites. With the investment, Räuberleiter takes an observer seat on the HyImpulse advisory board and will support the company on its way from a successful maiden flight to regular orbital launches.

Proven in flight

Founded in 2018 as a spin-off of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), HyImpulse builds rockets around an unusually pragmatic idea: burning solid paraffin, in essence candle wax, with liquid oxygen. The combination uses a non-explosive paraffin-based fuel, stores for years and keeps both production and launch infrastructure lean. In May 2024, the company’s SR75 rocket completed a successful maiden flight from the Koonibba Test Range in Australia. It was the first time that a German company has achieved the lift-off of a commercially viable launch vehicle. A second SR75 flight from SaxaVord Spaceport in Scotland is in preparation, and the orbital launcher SL1, designed to carry up to 600 kg into Low Earth Orbit, is targeted to fly in 2027. HyImpulse employs more than a hundred people in Neuenstadt am Kocher, Ottobrunn and Glasgow.

Independent access to space

Europe has discussed independent access to space for two decades. Demand for launching small satellites is growing across science, climate research, communication and earth observation, while affordable European launch capacity remains scarce. HyImpulse addresses exactly this gap, with a technology that makes launches simpler, safer and significantly more affordable.

»HyImpulse is one of the few teams in Europe that is actually building independent access to space rather than talking about it,« said Aimo Bülte, Co-Founder and Executive Director at Räuberleiter. »They chose their own technological path, they proved it in flight, and they did both with a level of engineering depth and modesty that is rare in this market. That is deep tech the way we like it.«

From research team to rocket company

HyImpulse stands at the threshold every successful spin-off reaches eventually: a proven product, a growing order book, and an organization that needs to scale with it. Räuberleiter will contribute its experience from building and scaling engineering organizations, from company building and governance to marketing, finance and the specifics of the aerospace industry.

»This team set a world record as students and was the first German company to get a commercially viable launch vehicle off the ground. Now comes the part we know best: turning a brilliant engineering organization into a company that scales,« said Lars Karsten, Co-Founder and Member of the Board at Räuberleiter. »Much of our own story happened in aerospace. We are glad to bring that experience to the table.«

»Scaling a launch company takes more than building rockets. With Räuberleiter we gain partners who know our industry from the inside and have grown engineering organizations before. They are part of the solution we are building: reliable, independent, economically viable access to space for Europe,« said Dr. Christian Schmierer, CEO of HyImpulse.

Photos: HyImpulse