What does Manufacturing in space do?

Varda Space Industries operates an in-house platform for orbital material processing and return of products to Earth.

Who founded Manufacturing in space?

Manufacturing in space was founded by Will Bruey, Delian Asparouhov in 2021.

Who are Manufacturing in space's investors?

Manufacturing in space's investors include Also Capital, Caffeinated Capital, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, General Catalyst, 137 Ventures, Advaita Capital and 24 more.

Where is Manufacturing in space headquartered?

Manufacturing in space is headquartered in El Segundo, US.

Manufacturing in space

El Segundo, US · Founded 2021 · 272 employees on LinkedIn · 32 known investors

Find your way into Manufacturing in space

1,024 people in our graph share verified history with the Manufacturing in space team — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.

Dan Bartusunlockedknows Will Bruey · together at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (overlapped)

×2knows the team · via Cornell

×5knows the team · via Bank of America Merrill Lynch

knows the team · via Massachusetts Institute of Technology

×3knows the team · via Square

Varda industrializes low Earth orbit by manufacturing pharmaceuticals and other specialized products in space, then returning them to Earth via reusable reentry capsules. The company develops both in-space production infrastructure and the vehicles needed to support commercial orbital manufacturing.

Also known as Varda · Varda Space Industries

Biotech Deep Tech Space Tech

Founders & leadership

Manufacturing in space was founded in 2021 by Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhov.

Will Bruey in 𝕏Co-founderPreviously spent six years at SpaceX as a lead hardware development engineer and Dragon spacecraft systems officer, followed by a stint as a director in global equities technology at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He also co-founded Also Capital and earlier worked as an electrical engineer at Cornell's synchrotron accelerator and at Space Systems Loral.

Delian Asparouhov in 𝕏Co-founderA partner at Founders Fund, where he has invested since 2019, he previously held principal and chief of staff roles at Khosla Ventures and ran the marketplace and music/entertainment businesses at Teespring. Earlier, he was CEO of the healthcare startup Nightingale App.

Investors · 32

Also Capital✓ verifiedNew Yorkvia Mike Annunziata · inferred

Caffeinated Capital✓ verifiedSan Francisco · $3M – $50M

Founders Fund✓ verifiedSan Francisco · $500K – $5Mvia Delian Asparouhov · led

Khosla Ventures✓ verifiedMenlo Park · $5K – $50M

Lux Capital✓ verifiedNew York · $100K – $100M

General Catalyst✓ verifiedSan Francisco · $30M

137 VenturesSan Francisco

Advaita CapitalBoston

Alumni VenturesManchester · $100K – $10M

Angel Collective Opportunity FundSan Francisco

Balerion Space VenturesDallas

Basecamp FundManchester · $100K – $10M

Beyond CapitalSan Diego

Brainstorm VenturesSan Francisco

Daft CapitalPalo Alto · $500K – $2Mvia Jon Dishotsky · inferred

Entrepreneur VenturesLos Angeles · $25K – $50Kvia Jonathan Hung · inferred

Fifty YearsSan Francisco · $250K – $2M

Fourth RealmMenlo Park

HOF CapitalNew York · $25K – $15M

Kinled HoldingHong Kongvia Patrick Aisher · inferred

LaunchBay CapitalLondon

Linse CapitalSan Juan

Scribble VenturesPortola Valley · $750K – $1.5M

Sinai Capital Partners

Solari CapitalNew York

Space CapitalNew York City

Summit Peak InvestmentsFort Worth

VU Venture PartnersSan Francisco · $200K – $1M

Digitalis VenturesreportedNew York · $100K – $10M

Explorer 1 FundreportedVenice

Saga VenturesreportedAustin

Side Door VenturesreportedFernandina Beach · $300K – $5M

Company profile

researched Aug 2026

Varda Space Industries, based in El Segundo, California, develops a platform built entirely in-house for orbital material processing and atmospheric reentry. The company organizes its offerings around three areas: government customers, for whom it positions its vehicles as a hypersonic testbed for reentry and orbital flight testing; biopharma customers, for whom it offers microgravity processing to identify unique morphologies and crystal structures; and broader microgravity research.

The company's platform is marketed under the name W-Series. Varda frames its mission as expanding the economic bounds of humankind and describes its work in terms of an orbital industrial revolution.

Business model

Varda offers access to its in-house orbital processing and reentry platform to external customers, with dedicated contact channels and solution lines for government, biopharma, and microgravity research users.

Latest developments

Varda announced a research collaboration with United Therapeutics.

▸Full profile — technology, go-to-market, geography

Technology

A vertically developed (in-house) system for processing materials in orbit and returning them through atmospheric reentry, offered commercially as the W-Series platform.

Go-to-market

Government agencies seeking hypersonic reentry and orbital flight testing capability, biopharmaceutical companies pursuing crystallization and morphology work in microgravity, and microgravity researchers.

Geography

Headquartered at 225 S Aviation Blvd, El Segundo, California, United States.

Compiled by commissioned research from 1 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.

Key figures

latest reported

HeadcountAug 2026272

Company-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.

Competitors · 4

by search overlap

Capella Space46 shared keywordsCapella Space designs, builds, and operates synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellations that provide all-weather, day-and-night Earth observation imagery at sub-0.25m resolution. It offers an automated end-to-end tasking and data delivery platform serving defense and intelligence, maritime, disaster response, and infrastructure monitoring customers.

Spacecapital21 shared keywordsSpace Capital is a venture capital firm investing in space technology companies across infrastructure, distribution, and applications layers, including GPS, geospatial intelligence, and satellite communications. With over $1 billion in assets under management, it is the world's largest space-focused venture capital firm.

Builtinla19 shared keywordsBlock, Inc. operates a suite of financial services and technology brands including payment processing, cash transfer, music streaming, and bitcoin products. The company serves sellers, consumers, artists, and bitcoin users globally to expand access to financial systems.

Rocket Lab Public19 shared keywordsRocket Lab is an end-to-end space company providing launch services via the Electron and upcoming Neutron vehicles, along with spacecraft design, manufacture, and components for commercial, civil, and defense customers. The company serves satellite operators and mission planners globally with complete solutions from launch to on-orbit management.

Companies competing with Manufacturing in space for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.

Non-dilutive funding · 3 SBIR/STTR awards

Federal grants — no equity taken

Agency	Phase	Year	Amount
U.S. Air ForceAir Force	Phase II	2023	$29.5M
U.S. Air ForceAir Force	Phase I	2022	$46.4K
U.S. Air ForceAir Force	Phase II	2021	$443.5K

Source: SBIR.gov award data (U.S. Small Business Administration). SBIR/STTR awards are competitive federal R&D grants and contracts — non-dilutive capital alongside any venture rounds above.

Timeline · 1

launches, deals, and filings

Jan 2026

Research collaboration with United Therapeutics

Varda announced a research collaboration with United Therapeutics.

source ↗

Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.

▸Research sources · 1

primary sources listed

Manufacturing in spacevarda.com · web

1 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.

Frequently asked questions

What does Manufacturing in space do?: Varda Space Industries operates an in-house platform for orbital material processing and return of products to Earth.
Who founded Manufacturing in space?: Manufacturing in space was founded by Will Bruey, Delian Asparouhov in 2021.
Who are Manufacturing in space's investors?: Manufacturing in space's investors include Also Capital, Caffeinated Capital, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, General Catalyst, 137 Ventures, Advaita Capital and 24 more.
Where is Manufacturing in space headquartered?: Manufacturing in space is headquartered in El Segundo, US.