Hanwha Asset Management has made a follow-on investment in U.S. space company Impulse Space through a project fund formed with four Korean institutional investors.
The asset manager said on the 22nd that it took part in Impulse Space's Series D1 funding round. Hanwha Asset Management, the only Asian investor to have backed the company since its Series B round, has now joined four consecutive rounds. Four institutions were selected for the project fund from among Korean institutions that expressed interest in committing capital.
Impulse Space was founded in 2021 by Tom Mueller, a founding member of SpaceX who served as chief technology officer for more than a decade and led development of the Merlin engine. The company develops orbital transfer vehicles that move satellites and cargo to their target orbits after a launch vehicle places them in space.
It has completed three successful missions with Mira, its low-Earth-orbit transfer vehicle, and is developing Helios, a vehicle designed for direct insertion into geostationary orbit. The company is also working with U.S. defense contractor Anduril on Golden Dome, a next-generation missile defense program. In June, it raised about $500 million, pushing cumulative funding past $1 billion. Founders Fund, led by Peter Thiel, is also a major shareholder.
Hanwha Asset Management plans to use the investment to widen co-investment opportunities for Korean institutions in high-quality overseas deep tech companies. It has built its portfolio through direct investments in space companies including SpaceX, ICEYE and Varda Space, and in artificial intelligence companies including OpenAI, Mistral AI, Grok, Mercor and ElevenLabs. It has also invested in robotics companies Physical Intelligence, Skild AI and 1X, next-generation energy company Radiant, and defense companies Shield AI and Havoc AI.
The firm said it would broaden its investment targets by drawing on relationships with these companies and on direct sourcing channels through overseas venture capital firms and founders, while strengthening ties with Korean investors and industry. It will continue to run Hanwha VC Connect, a networking program set up for that purpose.
"Investment relationships we built early on with global deep tech companies made this investment possible," said Lim Dong-jun, chief executive of Hanwha Asset Management. "We will use our experience and network in U.S. AI and deep tech investing to offer clients forward-looking financial products that lead the market."