He helped land a spacecraft on a comet. Now, he decides which space startups get funded.
Koen Geurts went from operating one of ESA’s most iconic missions to becoming a Senior Investment Manager at HTGF – one of Germany’s most active early-stage investors.
In this episode, we cover:
-
What it’s really like to land on a comet (and bounce multiple times)
-
The transition from space engineer to VC
-
How HTGF thinks about early-stage space investments
-
Where Europe is falling behind – and where it can win
-
Contrarian bets (like propulsion) vs overhyped ideas (like space data centers)
-
Why government contracts are critical for scaling New Space companies
A rare inside look at both engineering and capital within the space ecosystem.
Follow Koen & HTGF:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kgeurts?originalSubdomain=dehttps://www.linkedin.com/company/high-tech-gruenderfonds/https://www.htgf.de/en/venture-capital-investor-2/
Follow NewSpaceVision:
https://de.linkedin.com/company/newspacevision
https://twitter.com/newspacevision
https://www.instagram.com/newspacevision/
https://www.facebook.com/newspacevision/
https://www.meetup.com/de-DE/newspace/
This podcast is sponsored by LiveEO. For more information on how Earth observation can help your company, contact:
info@live-eo.com
podcast@newspace.vision
podcast@live-eo.com