‘I’ve always loved space since childhood – now I run the world’s biggest space fund’

As CEO of the world’s leading global space investor, Mark Boggett can see anything up to 200 diverse opportunities land on his desk every month.

Since the pioneering space tech fund was launched a decade ago, the Briton has marvelled at companies connecting a bluetooth item on Earth from space to on-the-ground radars which can detect cosmic objects the size of a small coin.

From the outset, Seraphim Space has built a global brand and a huge following on social media and its reach now allows the company to see a majority of the global deal flow in space.

“We have this visibility that no one else has got,” says Boggett, who co-founded the company in 2015. “It ultimately leads to our USP which is that we see every space business. When we see a new one we know if it’s special or not.”

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Crucially for Boggett and his partners, it also helps educate investors. In its portfolio of 147 space tech companies and led by defence startups, seven have become valued at £1bn and only three have failed. The British-based firm’s net asset value has also surged to £259.8m.

Seraphim Space runs three key venture funds; an accelerator focused on supporting start-up companies access finance, a private venture fund while, in 2021, the world’s first publicly listed space tech fund was listed.

Boggett says he was originally drawn into the sector during a risk averse, expensive period for the industry before the space economy expansion led to satellite deployment becoming increasingly cheaper and more accessible.

He cites Elon Musk’s SpaceX and reusable rockets as the key driver. In 2024, a launch into orbit occurred every 34 hours, with thousands of satellites “the size of cars and buses and now the size of microwaves and shoe boxes with more capability” able to see Earth in real time and provide new forms of communication.

“It’s the next generation of space capability and it’s game changing,” says Boggett.

The space industry is set to become one of the most prized sectors in the global economy and is projected to reach £1.4 trillion by 2035.

Where once it took serious investment and time to send into orbit, more than half of the 18,000 satellites launched in space history have arrived since 2020. Analysts predict 100,000 in space during the course of this decade.

Bogget, who grew up in Manchester, studied for a degree in accountancy from University of Leeds and then a master’s in economics and finance. Having trained in the investment side, his career has been focused in deep technology.

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A director at specialist investor YFM Equity, he joined forces with James Bruegger and Rob Desborough, partners he had worked with since 2006, after interest was heightened when Google purchased satellite firm Skybox Imaging for £300m in 2014. “It demonstrated to us that you could build businesses quickly, efficiently and do it profitably,” adds Boggett.

With no business background in space — they had always harboured an interest since childhood — they were introduced to CEOs of 11 of the world’s largest traditional space companies by the UK space agency. The British Business Bank then agreed to back the fund in 2016 to the tune of £30m.

A decade after launching and witnessing the exponential growth, Boggett is acutely aware that Seraphim Space is “part of the problem” when it comes to dealing with space junk.

“We are a financier of the large constellations and we are adding to the large debris problem in the space environment,” he says. “If left unchecked it could render space no longer commercially viable.”

The space tech fund took a multi-million stake in Tokyo-based Astroscale, a satellite servicing group whose tech is extending the life-span of Earth-orbiting satellites via docking vehicles able to inspect, repair or take away broken space hardware.

Seraphim Space has also partnered with San Francisco-based LeoLabs, which is billed as the ‘Google Maps of space’, whose ground radars can see an object “the size of a 2p piece from 1,000 kms away”. Once identified, the company can track it through space in real time and then determine the path that piece of debris is on.

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With offices also in San Francisco and Berlin and its portfolio extending to over 35 countries, Boggett relishes global travel and conferences he speaks at regularly, alongside his family life. “My passion is my work,” he says. Is there anything that keeps him awake at night? “War in space. Economies are reliant on space,” he notes.

Meanwhile, there are no immediate plans on the space tourism market. It is, he says, an industry several decades away from being a commercial one and outside of Seraphim Space’s 10-year view.

“This rules out space travel or anything to do with the moon or Mars,” admits Boggett. “If we look at tomorrow, it’s about building infrastructure, data centres and manufacturing in space, lift entire dirty industries and take them into space without the pollution.”

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