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Stoke Space funding, valuation and investors
Fully reusable medium-lift rocket (Nova) targeting 100% first- and second-stage reuse from Kent, Washington.
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Funding, valuation & investors
Answer-first snapshotLatest funding
Series D extension
$350M (extension; $860M total in round) · February 2026
Latest known valuation
Not publicly disclosed
Total disclosed equity funding
$1.1B
Excludes debt, grants, acquisitions, secondaries, and IPO proceeds.
Current status
private
growth · Kent, Washington
Investors in latest funding
Lead: U.S. Innovative Technology Fund (USIT)
Overview
Stoke Space Technologies is a Kent, Washington rocket company developing Nova, a fully and rapidly reusable two-stage medium-lift launch vehicle. Nova targets ~3,000 kg to LEO with seven methalox Zenith engines on the first stage and a hydrolox Andromeda-2 second stage using an integrated metallic heat shield instead of thermal tiles. Founded in 2020 by Andy Lapsa and Tom Feldman, Stoke operates a 168,000 sq ft vertically integrated factory and a test site near Moses Lake, Washington, with launches planned from Cape Canaveral LC-14. The company has raised $1.34 billion including a $860M Series D (Oct 2025–Feb 2026) and holds NASA and U.S. Space Force partnerships.
Why Stoke Space is interesting
Most launchers still expend the upper stage. Nova's regeneratively cooled metallic heat shield and hydrolox second stage aim for aircraft-like reuse frequency — a capability only SpaceX Starship is pursuing at similar scale.
Product & use cases
Nova is a fully reusable medium-lift orbital rocket with a methalox first stage (7× Zenith engines, RTLS or drone-ship landing) and a hydrolox second stage with an integrated metallic reentry heat shield — designed for rapid turnaround and return shipments from orbit.
- LEO constellation deployment where launch cadence and cost per kg matter
- Government and defense missions requiring launch diversity beyond SpaceX
- Orbital logistics — capture, reposition, and return of in-space assets enabled by reusable upper stage
Key facts
- Series D extension (Feb 2026): $860M total in round; $1.34B lifetime capital raised (Stoke press)
- Nova: 100% reusable two-stage rocket; ~3,000 kg to LEO; LC-14 at Cape Canaveral (Stoke site)
- NASA partnership (2026) to advance upper-stage re-entry capabilities (Stoke press)
- Kevin Weil (OpenAI product leader) joined board July 2026 (Stoke press)
- Co-founders Andy Lapsa and Tom Feldman; 125+ employees per Wikipedia
Funding history (newest first)
Series D extension
2026-02 $350M (extension; $860M total in round)- U.S. Innovative Technology Fund (USIT) (lead)
Series D
2025-10 $510M- U.S. Innovative Technology Fund (USIT) (lead)
- Breakthrough Energy (participant)
- Toyota Ventures (participant)
Series C
2025-01 $260MSource: https://spacenews.com/stoke-space-raises-510-million/
Competitive landscape
Edge: Full second-stage reusability via a regeneratively cooled metallic heat shield — eliminating expendable upper stages that dominate most commercial launchers — plus vertically integrated manufacturing with a private test facility three hours from HQ.
Launch redundancy is a strategic priority for U.S. government and constellation operators. Stoke must prove Nova through engine qualification and LC-14 activation before competing on cadence with SpaceX; its upper-stage reuse thesis is differentiated but unproven in flight.
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SpaceX Starship/Falcon 9 direct
Market leader in reuse; Starship also targets full reusability but at super-heavy-lift scale with a longer development timeline.
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Rocket Lab Neutron direct
Medium-lift reusable launcher in development; first stage reuse only — upper stage remains expendable.
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Relativity Space Terran R direct
Reusable medium-lift competitor; 3D-printed manufacturing approach vs. Stoke's steel-tank, rapid-iteration model.
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Blue Origin New Glenn incumbent
Heavy-lift reusable first stage; not targeting full second-stage reuse like Nova.
Notable stories
- Stoke's second stage uses 24 thrust chambers ringing a regeneratively cooled metallic heat shield — eliminating traditional thermal tiles (Wikipedia, Stoke Nova page).
- NASA selected Stoke in 2026 for a partnership advancing upper-stage re-entry capabilities on Nova (Stoke press).
Industries
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