Auckland space startup Outlier Space has raised US$7.35 million (about A$10.5 million) in a pre-seed round to build an autonomous, reusable capsule that carries payloads into orbit and returns them to Earth. The round, announced in July 2026, is one of the largest pre-seed raises in New Zealand.
The company is positioning itself for the period after the International Space Station is retired, when researchers and manufacturers who rely on microgravity will need other ways to get experiments into space and back. Some materials and molecules form differently without gravity, and Outlier is targeting US and European pharmaceutical, biotech and advanced materials companies that want access to those conditions.
The capsule
Outlier is designing a free flying return capsule that can launch on any rocket, hold a customer’s payload in microgravity and then bring it home. Payload reported that the interior volume will be comparable to three ISS mid deck lockers, and that the company plans to offer a “microgravity chamber” for pharmaceutical or semiconductor manufacturing experiments.
Because the capsule is reusable and not tied to a single launch provider or a crewed station, the company argues customers could fly more often than they can today.
The founder
Outlier was founded in 2024 by Jamie France, who spent 16 years on New Zealand’s America’s Cup campaigns before joining Rocket Lab, where Payload reported he was global director of the Electron launch vehicle. He spent nearly a decade at the company.
“If someone wants to make money from microgravity, they need to have cost-effective access,” France told Payload. He also acknowledged the competition: “I know that we’re not the first free flyer on the market.”
The raise and what’s next
The round was led by Global from Day One (GD1), with Nova Threshold, Airtree, Icehouse Ventures, Investible, Side Stage Ventures and angel investor Brian Cartmell participating.
According to Payload, the money will go towards building an in house heat shield and about two years of hardware testing and subsystem qualification, early work on regulatory approvals and pre-booking customer missions before the first flight. The debut mission is targeted for 2028 and is expected to fly under a US Federal Aviation Administration licence.
Jack’s take
New Zealand already proved it can get hardware into orbit through Rocket Lab, and this is a crack at the other half of the trip. Bringing things back down safely is a hard, unglamorous problem, which is exactly why it could be valuable. It’s early and 2028 is a long way off, but a founder who ran Electron is the kind of background that makes me keep watching.