majorfinancial2026-09-08

Stoke Space raises $1 billion Series E round, total funding hits $2.3 billion

Stoke Space closed an initial $1B Series E tranche, taking total capital raised to $2.3B ahead of Nova Pathfinder's debut.

// sources · 4 attached

what happened

Stoke Space said September 8 it closed an initial $1 billion tranche of a Series E round co-led by Point72 Ventures and Spark Capital, with General Innovation, Glade Brook Capital, US Innovation Technology, Washington Harbour Partners, Woven Capital, Y Combinator and other investors participating, per the company's own release. The round brings Stoke's total capital raised to $2.3 billion. The company said the funds will scale manufacturing, test, launch and recovery infrastructure and fund development of a larger second-generation vehicle, Nova Block 2, targeted for 2029; Nova Pathfinder's first flight has slipped from late 2026 to early 2027.

why it matters

At $1 billion, the round is Stoke's largest to date and, per TechCrunch, sits among the biggest Series E rounds raised by any US tech company, confirming investors are still betting heavily on a fully reusable Falcon 9 challenger before Nova has flown an orbital mission. CEO Andy Lapsa said the round is meant to fund production scale and flight cadence, not just development, and the parallel Nova Block 2 announcement signals Stoke is already planning a vehicle beyond Pathfinder's payload class.