"China's SpaceX" GeeSpace Launches New Funding Round
Claire Weston
Orbita Satellite (垣信卫星) opened a new funding round on June 22 with a minimum ticket of RMB 5 billion and up to 20% equity on offer; the company building China's Qianfan mega-constellation is shifting from tech validation to mass deployment — and its cash burn is accelerating in lockstep.
How much money, and from whom?
The round will admit no more than three new investors; existing shareholders will co-invest, with total new equity capped at 20%.
Each investor or consortium must commit at least RMB 5 billion; the final net raise depends on market conditions.
This means → the implied valuation floor is roughly RMB 25 billion, likely higher in practice.
Investors must be mainland-China-registered entities — Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan are excluded; consortia count as one investor.
Who is Orbita, and who backs it?
Orbita Satellite (垣信卫星) was founded in 2018 with registered capital of about RMB 2.14 billion and currently has 27 shareholders.
The largest is Shanghai Lianhe Investment, an arm of the Shanghai SASAC, holding roughly 49.89%.
In plain terms = this is a state-controlled, multi-stakeholder "national team" satellite company, not a pure private-sector startup.
How big is the Qianfan constellation?
Qianfan — China's indigenous low-Earth-orbit satellite internet constellation — is planned in three phases:
Phase 1: 1,296 satellites by 2027; Phase 2: adds ~10,000, reaching 10,000+ in orbit by 2030; Phase 3: final state exceeds 15,000, integrated into the 6G ecosystem.
This means → the end-state scale rivals SpaceX's Starlink, making Qianfan China's flagship LEO internet project.
How far along are the launches?
In 2024 Orbita deployed 54 satellites; by end-2025 the count reached 108. The pace accelerated sharply in 2026 — consecutive launches in early June brought the in-orbit total to 200.
The AIS satellite system — a space-based layer for automatic ship identification — completed its own networking milestone in parallel.
In mid-June Orbita achieved China's first unmodified commercial-phone direct-to-satellite voice call, with call quality matching terrestrial 5G.
In plain terms = no new phone, no add-on hardware — a regular handset connected to a satellite and made a call. That is a key technical milestone.
Still burning cash — how much?
Net loss was RMB 811 million in 2024 and widened to RMB 890 million in 2025.
In Q1 2026 revenue was zero; net loss was RMB 103 million.
This reflects a company still in pure-investment mode: satellites are launching, tech is being validated, but commercial revenue has not started.
This means → the logic behind a RMB 5 billion-plus raise is not "profitable and expanding" — it is "still burning and needs ammunition."
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.