Inside SpaceTech with OTB Ventures: Tomek Lepka on Founders, Technology, and the Opportunities Ahead
Tomek Lepka of OTB Ventures shares how he spots promising SpaceTech startups, which sectors excite him, and how he navigates the unique challenges of investing in this fast-moving industry.
Tomek Lepka brings together knowledge and practical experience in SpaceTech investing. As an Investment Manager at OTB Ventures, Tomek leverages his finance and data analytics expertise to back high-potential startups, all while keeping a close eye on the people behind the technology. He believes that perseverance and patience are essential for achieving real innovation and long-term success.
In this interview, Tomek shares his journey into SpaceTech, insights on industry trends, how he evaluates startups, and the sectors that excite him most today.
Tomek, you joined OTB Ventures in early 2023, but you’ve been involved in SpaceTech for some time before that. What initially drew you to the industry, and how has your relationship with SpaceTech evolved over the years?
The seed was actually planted a bit earlier, before I joined OTB. At that time, I was working at a fund of funds. We invested in a Tier 1 European VC with deep tech and space at the heart of its thesis. I still remember one of their portfolio founders pitching a thermal imaging satellite constellation for precision agriculture. That was the time it really hit me that space is not only about rockets and astronauts at NASA—it’s critical infrastructure that can solve urgent problems here on Earth.
When I joined OTB, I stopped being on the sidelines and became hands-on. The first company I did a deep dive on was in SpaceTech, building a 5G IoT satellite constellation. The idea was to connect any device anywhere in the world without additional ground infrastructure. With new technology and standards, this became possible—not just for IoT sensors but also for phones.
For someone like me, who loves ski touring in remote areas, this was impressive. It means satellite phones could become obsolete—you would just carry your normal phone, and your family would always be able to reach you.
Since then, in OTB, I’ve looked at almost every corner of the value chain from propulsion, alternative launchers, the in-orbit economy, return missions to Earth observation.
OTB Ventures was founded in 2017, back when only a few VCs were really focused on SpaceTech. What’s happening in the industry lately? Are there any big changes you’re noticing? And how do you see SpaceTech evolving over the next few years?
A lot has changed—and fast.
First, the mindset. A few years ago in Europe, it was unheard of for investors to put tens of millions into a company without a single operational satellite. Examples like SpaceX changed that equation. By slashing launch costs and proving you could scale constellations, they lowered the barrier to entry across the industry. Suddenly, what once looked like government-only projects became viable for startups — and that opened the door for a wave of new investors, including generalist VCs.
Success stories like SpaceX proved the model — with access to space getting ever cheaper and more frequent, investors are increasingly leaning toward backing ambitious founders with bold ideas.
Second, focus areas evolved. It started with optical Earth observation, but optical has limitations—it can’t see through clouds. Radar SAR solved that—ICEYE is a great example of a company that addressed this, and it was actually the third company OTB invested in. Then came thermal, and now hyperspectral, which essentially allows to chemically fingerprint the planet , enabling applications in agriculture, mining, disaster response, and now increasingly, defense intelligence.
Third, the in-orbit economy. With so many satellites launched, you need solutions for refueling, extending satellite life, removing debris, and managing traffic.
And finally, defense. Europe is building real strength here. Projects like IRIS for secure connectivity or UK frameworks for hypersonics show that governments are super serious about building sovereign capabilities. Going forward, I think this will only intensify, and we’ll see the majority of SpaceTech companies having a defense use case.
European SpaceTech is increasingly being driven by defense — and this trend is only going to accelerate.
Given OTB Ventures’ experience investing in SpaceTech companies like ICEYE, ClearSpace, Atmos Space Cargo, and Kurs Orbital, which span from post-product stages to scaling operations, what key signals do you look for to identify startups with strong potential? How do you assess when their technology is ready to scale?
Unfortunately, there’s no single magic signal. And especially when you look at the upstream tech. Because for downstream, it can be a bit simpler, but let's focus on upstream. Three things matter most:
Flight heritage—or a credible path to it. Early-stage Investors want confidence that the technology actually works in space. At seed stage, it’s often enough to see a prototype validated on the ground in a realistic environment. By Series A, we usually expect a prototype that has been tested under real conditions — ideally with some first in-orbit demonstrations — and a level of maturity where there are no more “binary” risks that could make or break the technology.
Readiness to scale. Founders must have suppliers lined up, understand the regulatory environment, and have a plan to scale production once the tech is validated.
Market demand. Strong companies usually show both government and commercial demand. Relying on a single client is too risky.
Atmos is a good example of the company moving to the next stage. We invested at last-seed stage, before their first in-orbit mission. Backed with our funding and a strong syndicate of investors, they completed Europe’s first re-entry mission, secured commercial contracts, and sold out most of their next launch capacity. They are scaling fast; they achieved this at a fraction of the cost compared to US peers.
What are some of the unique hurdles SpaceTech founders face compared to other sectors?
I would say it’s never just one hurdle in SpaceTech—it’s really a stack of all of them at once. If you focus on the upstream, getting things into space, you face all the classic hardware challenges: long development cycles, supply chain issues, space-grade, flight-qualified components—ideally from NATO-aligned countries in our case—licensing, and so on.
Then there’s the launch. If you want a reliable partner like SpaceX, you have to book a slot at least 12 to 18 months in advance. You can pay a bit more and launch earlier, or you can take a risk with often government-subsidized European launchers that don’t have flight heritage.
On top of this, government sales can take a year or more to close, often tied to budget cycles, and working with space agencies or primes together is not straightforward. These customers operate on very different timelines and pressures compared to startups that might have just a couple of months—or maybe 24 months at best—of runway.
And then there’s the cash flow challenge. Space companies are almost always fundraising. Even if a founder says they’re not fundraising, I tend to take it with a grain of salt. The ones who succeed manage it well—they often fly something small early to prove it works and then raise the next round.
From your experience with founders of your portfolio companies, what qualities define a great SpaceTech founder? Are there specific traits you’ve noticed consistently among the founders you’ve backed?
The best space founders are what I call “three-hat leaders.” In the morning, they are deep tech engineers. At lunch, they are operators and managers. By dinner, they are diplomats. They also have to be coalition builders, especially in fragmented Europe, bringing together agencies, ministries, primes, and commercial customers.
We work with many strong founders, but what makes someone truly exceptional can be seen in Rafał from ICEYE. First, he proved you could fit a SAR sensor on much smaller satellites than anyone thought was possible. Then, ICEYE went deep into vertical integration and can now launch dozens of satellites per year. And finally, Rafał grew into a public leader, winning large European defense contracts and hosting prime ministers at his facilities. This “three-hat leader” profile is exactly what it takes.
Successful SpaceTech founders need to be engineers, operators, and diplomats all at once - handling the tech, the business, and multifaceted relationships.
You don’t have to be this person at the moment we invest, but we have to see the potential of such a person to grow into this role. Typically, the earlier it is, it's more of a deep tech engineer, an operator, and then more of a public leader, diplomat.
What unique challenges do investors face when investing in SpaceTech startups, and how do you approach managing those risks?
Obviously, the biggest one is always technology risk, because you're often making something that's never flown before. We manage this by working with technical advisors we’re well-connected with, and we rely heavily on our portfolio company’s founders.
We also make sure companies are aware of regulatory frameworks, have well-planned schedules, and contingency plans for delays or issues with critical partners. It’s not enough to just believe in the technology—you have to see a path to returns.
Co-investors play an important role here: syndicating rounds with like-minded investors provides not only the capital but also the networks and expertise needed to scale.
OTB Ventures expanded its focus from Earth observation to include areas like in-orbit servicing, debris removal, and space cargo. Which SpaceTech sectors excite you the most today?
There’s a difference between exploring opportunities and actually investing. You can look at many emerging use cases or markets and find them interesting, but investing requires enough market demand. If a market is tied to a single government or client, the upside may be limited. In other words, something can be exciting to watch, but from an investor’s perspective, the key question is whether it can realistically deliver a €1B+ outcome, the typical minimum threshold for venture-scale returns.
On that note, a few stand out:
Direct-to-device communications. Not only consumer broadband, but also disaster recovery and defense, where ground infrastructure can be jammed or spoofed.
Space Situational Awareness (SSA). Monitoring what’s in orbit and predicting hostile actions, and not just avoiding collision.
Space-based PNT (positioning, navigation, timing). This technology underpins everything from troop movements to missile guidance, financial transactions, and power grids. GPS can be jammed or spoofed, so we need a secure connection from space, possibly a LEO constellation.
Very Low Earth Orbit (vLEO). We’ve moved from GEO to LEO, and now to very low orbits (150–250 km). The lower you go, the harder it gets due to drag and frequent replacements, but the benefits are obvious: sharper imagery, lower latency, and harder-to-detect satellites. It’s still an underdeveloped area.
Hypersonics. This is where space and defense truly converge. China is leading, Russia already has operational systems, while the U.S. is feeling the pressure and investing billions; Europe is only beginning to move. The UK, for example, has launched a £1B framework for hypersonics. It’s an extremely high-risk, high-impact technology. In the near term, hypersonics are primarily about deterrence and defense — that’s where the real momentum is today. Looking further ahead, the same technology could one day enable rapid global access, but that remains a longer-term possibility.