The Space Industrial Age is beginning
History's greatest fortunes
will be made off-world.
Space Age Ventures writes first checks for the endeavouring optimists building the off-world economy.
01How we invest
Stage
Pre-seed & Seed
First check
$250K – $1M
Approach
Conviction-led
Geography
US · EU · CA · AU
Space · Lunar · Robotics · Autonomy · Drones · Defence · Energy · AI · Manufacturing · Compute
02Our thesis
The Space Industrial Age
is beginning.
We believe we are entering a period where space becomes an operational and industrial domain, not just a destination. Launch costs have collapsed 99% in a decade. AI is compressing hard-tech execution cycles. Geopolitical urgency is reshaping what capital should fund. Industries that looked decades away are becoming investable now.
Space Age Ventures exists to back the founders building that future. Early, with conviction, and with the technical fluency to know what matters.
03What we invest in
01
Space Infrastructure
Launch-adjacent systems, orbital services, communications, sensing, power, mobility, and mission-critical tooling.
02
Lunar Industrialization
Technologies enabling extraction, construction, energy, transport, robotics, and sustained off-world operations.
03
Robotics & Autonomy
Systems that increase industrial capability in constrained, remote, hazardous, and high-precision environments.
04
Advanced Manufacturing
New methods, materials, and tooling that unlock strategic industrial advantage on Earth and beyond.
05
Defence-Enabling Systems
Technologies with strategic relevance, resilient infrastructure value, or dual-use applications.
06
AI-Native Hard Tech
AI as a force multiplier for engineering, simulation, operations, manufacturing, and industrial decision-making.
04What we look for
Passionate visionaries who can
live painfully in the present.
We back founders with:
+
Exceptional technical depth
Built the thing, not just the pitch. Deep domain expertise that compounds over time.
+
Contrarian conviction
Sees what others don't. Builds where consensus says it's too early, too hard, or too niche.
+
Persistence through difficulty
Frontier tech is hard and timelines are long. We look for founders who endure.
+
Infrastructure potential
Building systems that become load-bearing for industries, not nice-to-have tools.
We have a bias for companies that look difficult, necessary, and early.
05The team
Founder
Mel Gelderman
Always ahead of the curve. Bought Bitcoin in 2013. Seed-round investor in early DeFi and Ethereum (MakerDAO, Uniswap). Founded Monolith, processing $130M in crypto-to-fiat volume. Built Token.com into a top social-fi trading platform. Now focused on space infrastructure that will enable humanity's next chapter, and the technological singularity beyond. Builder, technologist, deep into all the sciences.
Co-founder
Bertie Stanley
In crypto operations since 2017. Joined Monolith when crypto debit cards were still a novel idea, then ran treasury at Token.com: custody, liquidity, counterparty risk across a multi-entity crypto group. Brings the operational discipline that makes early conviction defensible.
06Why now
01
Space is becoming industrial
What was exploration-driven is becoming infrastructure-driven. Launch costs collapsed 99% in a decade.
02
AI compresses execution
Technical teams can design, simulate, and iterate faster across complex hardware and industrial workflows.
03
Strategic industries matter again
Resilience, sovereignty, supply chains, and defence relevance are reshaping what capital should fund.
04
Lunar capability is on the roadmap
Governments, primes, and private industry are defining the systems for sustained off-world activity.
05
Space is an optimism filter
Only endeavouring optimists will settle the stars. Funding the frontier is an unshackling of human potential.
The venture landscape is shifting. We intend to be early to it.