Italian space tech company Astradyne has closed a €2 million seed investment round to accelerate the development of Solar-Z, its innovative ultralight solar panel designed for space applications.
The round was led by Primo Capital through the Primo Space fund, the first VC vehicle entirely dedicated to the Space Economy in the European Union. The round also saw participation from Galaxia, the Italian National Technology Transfer Hub for Aerospace, launched by CDP Venture Capital’s Technology Transfer Fund together with Obloo Ventures (already an investor in the pre-seed round), Eureka! Fund I – Technology Transfer, and the Puglia co-investment fund, both managed by Eureka! Venture SGR.
Founded in 2021 in Bari, Italy, Astradyne develops next-generation photovoltaic solutions designed for the New Space Economy, with the aim of making satellite power systems lighter, more compact, and more efficient – significantly reducing launch costs and increasing in-orbit performance.
Astradyne has completed its incubation path in I3P, the Innovative Companies Incubator of Politecnico di Torino, and in the ESA BIC Turin incubation program, run by I3P in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), the Italian Space Agency (ASI), Politecnico di Torino and LINKS Foundation.
With this investment, Astradyne aims to reach Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 9 for Solar-Z, complete in-orbit testing onboard Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and establish agreements with satellite integrators and manufacturers.
In parallel, the company is developing a complementary product line, Solar-Y, for advanced terrestrial applications – from construction to agriculture to mobile energy systems – adapting space-designed solutions to new needs on Earth, with the goal of rethinking how we generate energy in dynamic contexts.
“Our goal is to provide lighter, cheaper, and faster-to-deploy space power generation systems, addressing the main bottlenecks of current in-orbit photovoltaic technologies,” said Davide Vittori, CEO of Astradyne. “Thanks to this round, we can accelerate towards in-orbit qualification and strengthen our technology roadmap. At the same time, we are exploring selective technology transfer paths to Earth in sectors where lightness and portability of photovoltaic solutions are critical.”
“We decided to lead this investment because we consider Astradyne an extremely promising company, driven by a team with excellent engineering capabilities and a clear product and market vision,” said Matteo Cascinari, General Partner of Primo Space Fund. “Astradyne, our seventeenth investment, enriches a diversified portfolio spanning nearly every field of the Space Economy in Italy and Europe.”
“We are proud to renew our trust in Astradyne, with the goal of helping make satellite performance increasingly efficient, sustainable, and accessible,” said Claudia Pingue, Head of the Tech Transfer Fund at CDP Venture Capital. “With Galaxia, we aim to boost upstream space solutions, confident that Astradyne’s technological excellence and team vision are key elements to achieving this goal.”
“The investment in Astradyne perfectly fits the strategy of Eureka! Fund I – Technology Transfer, which targets value creation from applications enabled by innovative materials,” said Massimo Gentili, Partner at Eureka! Fund. “In space component applications, the ability to minimize weight and volume without sacrificing performance is crucial. Astradyne’s choice to use new types of flexible, reconfigurable materials based on satellite-specific needs offers an undeniable competitive advantage compared to solutions currently on the market.”
