Raison Asset Management participated in the Seed financing round of aerospace tech startup Destinus. The company was able to raise $29 million from Conny & Co, Quiet Capital, One Way Ventures, Liquid2 Ventures, Cathexis Ventures и ACE & Company. Raison Asset Management has invested approximately $850 thousand.
Destinus is a Swiss-based startup founded by Mikhail Kokorich, former founder of space tech startups Momentus and Dauria Aerospace. The startup is developing a technology for taking off an aircraft at hypersonic speed into the mesosphere and smoothly descending to another point on the planet. The engines will run on liquid hydrogen that is produced by electrolysis using renewable energy sources, which reduces the carbon footprint of the technology to zero.
According to the company, such delivery will take about 2 hours from a specialized airfield in Europe to Australia. Standard express air travel between continents takes 48 to 72 hours. Demand for transportation of medicines, vaccines, donor organs, important documents, and perishable products should increase interest in the industry, which will further reduce the cost of transportation. With a decrease in cost, a new cluster of customers from e-commerce, logistics, and other areas will appear on the market.
The first commercial hyperplane will be able to contain up to 1 ton of cargo. The company is planning to expand cargo capacity up to 100 tons. As per Mikhail Kokorich’s estimates, the first commercial hyperplanes the company will launch in 3-4 years, while larger planes will be able to fly in 2027-2030.
In November 2021, Destinus conducted the first test flight in Germany. The prototype named Jungfrau, a size of a passenger car, rose into the air to a height of 20 meters and made several maneuvers at a speed of 150 km/h. In 2022, the company plans to conduct a series of test flights of larger prototypes.