Most of what makes compiling this newsletter fun for me is 1) learning (see charts at the bottom) and then 2) reading about trends (highlight #1 and more), and 3) confirming my suspicions about said trends (see #3 under What I’m Reading).

In this newsletter, you’ll find allllll of the above and more.

Hope you enjoy!

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March Real Estate Highlights

1. Defense and critical industry technologies company Chaos Industries closed a $70 million Series A led by 8VC. The LA-based company is part of a trend that sees investors eyeing the defense space sector. (source: Crunchbase)

2. Building on the momentum we highlighted in last month’s newsletter, Terran Orbital leased 94k SF at 4 Goodyear, Irvine, CA. (source: Compstack)

3. Los Angeles-based startup K2 Space, co-founded by CEO Karan Kunjur and CTO Neel Kunjur, is setting out to build satellite buses. The brothers have hired seven people so far to join them — bringing on talent with prior experience at SpaceX, Maxar, Arianespace, Blue Origin, and more — and are in negotiations to secure a 15,000-square-foot factory in the Torrance, California, area. (source: CNBC)

4. X-Bow Systems Inc., a new non-traditional small business defense supplier of solid rocket motors (SRMs) and defense technologies, opened its newly built commercial SRM manufacturing campus in Luling, Texas, just south of Austin. (source: PR Newswire)

WHAT I’M READING (AND ENJOYING!):

I’m sure you’ve read some of these pieces, but just in case, I found these share-worthy.

1. “Just as Google and Craigslist were synonymous with the internet, in the early days of space exploration, NASA was similarly the only game in town.” NASA & The Craigslist Effect from Jack Kuhr’s SpaceProbe.

2. Interview with the CEO of Varda Space, Will Bruey. From the informative SpaceDotBiz newsletter. Loved this quote: At the end of the day, the value prop that we are offering our customers is not space access. It's the unique influence on chemical systems that microgravity provides. Quite frankly, our customers would be much happier if we just designed an anti-gravity box in the back of the lab.

3. Silicon Valley goes to war. Building on the trend of investing in space defense companies mentioned above in the Chaos Industries article, this TechCrunch piece takes a deeper dive into the VC / defense landscape.

4. Who doesn’t love a good list?! Fast Company’s The 10 most innovative space companies of 2023

CHARTS

I’ll admit it, keeping up with all the new space companies, what they do, and how they fit into this vast ecosystem is a handful. So, I pulled some charts from this super informative Andreessen Horowitz newsletter/blog post by Ryan McEntush and wanted to share.

The year is just about 25% over, and I’m three newsletters in. This has been fun for me and, I hope, informative for you. If you have any tips, requests, or even feedback for me, I’m all ears.

As always, we're here to help you with your real estate needs.

Thanks for reading.

Until next time,

Erik Stiebel
424-241-4795
DRE License #02080746