CisLunar Industries didn’t wait for the space economy to heat up, they lit the fuse themselves.
Tucked between Loveland and Denver, this crew of orbital blacksmiths just locked in a $1 million seed round, led by Colorado ONE Fund, and if you’re wondering why government and defense orgs are lining up to work with them, here’s a hint: they’re not selling vaporware. They’re engineering the backbone of the next-generation space economy, literally.
At the center of it all is Gary Calnan, CFA, CEO and co-founder with a space finance brain and a defense industry edge, and Joe Pawelski, MEng, CTO and fellow co-founder with deep roots in electric propulsion. But the founding bench runs deep: Walter Schroeder, PhD, CPO and materials whisperer; Toby Mould, MChem MSc, Head Space Engineer and resident space systems specialist. All backed by a team of engineers who don’t just think outside the box, they launched the damn thing into orbit.
CisLunar started with the radical idea of recycling space debris into usable metal feedstock. Not a metaphor, real orbital alchemy. But when U.S. government partners came calling for high-powered electric propulsion components, the team pivoted with precision. Enter the Mod-PPU series, modular, software-defined power processing units running from 400W to 6.8kW, hitting 94–96% efficiency. They’ve already flown on Falcon 9. Twice. This isn’t a PowerPoint pitch, it’s patented, tested, and space-qualified.
And let’s talk about the Space Foundry™. A modular in-space metal processing system that’s as real as it is ambitious. It’s not just enabling space welding, it’s building the supply chain for orbital industry, think extruding lunar wire and recycling junk into infrastructure.
With over $5 million in combined grants, contracts, and seed funding, including SBIR awards from NASA and SpaceWERX, CisLunar has gone from garage lab to critical infrastructure provider in just a few tight orbits. They’ve partnered with ThinkOrbital on welding demos, run power supply tests with Safran Spacecraft Propulsion, and work alongside Ball Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, and Georgia Tech. That’s not hype, that’s heat.
This round fuels an aggressive expansion: doubling down on high-voltage systems (up to 300kV), scaling PPU production, and prepping the full deployment of Space Foundry in orbit. Because if the space economy’s going to happen, it needs more than billionaires and rockets. It needs power. It needs process. It needs CisLunar.
The next industrial revolution won’t be televised, it’ll be beamed down from LEO, stitched together with kilowatts and cold-welded alloys. And if you’re not paying attention to what CisLunar Industries is building, you’re watching the wrong launchpad.
