Former Tesla engineers raise $23m to power space battery race

Elon Musk wants to combine Tesla and Space X in what would be the world’s biggest corporate merger, and two of his former engineers are showing exactly what is possible when you unite both companies’ technologies.

Jay Manley and Sam Paterson have moved back to Sydney and have raised $23m – marking one of Australia’s biggest deep tech seed funding rounds – to tackle the final frontier: space.

They worked on battery systems at Tesla in two different areas – Manley on its residential Powerwalls, electric vehicles for Paterson – before founding MP Space in Sydney in 2024. The duo’s mission is provide the space industry with “reliable and cheap power at an industrial scale”.

They have secured backing from Australia’s biggest venture capital fund Blackbird, Systemiq Capital, Seraphim Space, Speedinvest and MFV Partners, with their hardware already incorporated into the designs of more than 500 spacecraft after completing its maiden launch this month.

MP Space founders Jay Manley and Sam Paterson are providing the space industry with ‘reliable and cheap power at an industrial scale’, having previously honed their skills at Tesla. Pic as appeared in The Australian.

And they have taken plenty from Elon Musk’s playbook, particularly about knowing when to back winners pre-hype.

“In 2023, when we first started kicking this around, we knew Starship, SpaceX – like this bigger story was going to happen. It had been talked about internally in the companies, we knew roughly what the trajectory was. But it hadn’t happened yet,” Manley said.

“So (we thought) let’s go get into this. Let’s start building momentum. When the wave comes – like all this extra available launch capacity and investment … then it becomes mainstream. All the cash becomes mainstream. It’s like don’t try today and pitch an AI company.

“You want to break through the noise. You want to pitch something that’s going to be exciting in three to five years from now. It gives you enough time to be the leaders when it becomes exciting.”

Elon Musk wants to merge Tesla and SpaceX. Pic as appeared in The Australian

Power is the biggest hurdle in space exploration. It’s a problem Tesla and SpaceX have already spent years working on together before Musk touted the idea of a merger.

“There was definitely a regular technical exchange between the companies, particularly around materials and particular devices. Elon would be sitting in meetings with both companies, and he’d see a problem and be like, ‘the Tesla guys solved that. Go talk to them’. ‘The SpaceX guys solve that. Go talk to them’,” Manley said.

“And so, the Tesla guys might be learning some cool material science stuff from the SpaceX guys, and the SpaceX guys were often coming to the Tesla factories about how to build at scale. There’s a lot of cross pollination … even more today. If you were to say take a SpaceX Starlink battery and pull it apart, it’s all the same technology or like the same style of production technology as what you see on the (Tesla) vehicles.”

MP Space designs and makes high-performance, industrial-grade lithium-ion battery systems for low-Earth orbit satellite constellations and spacecraft in Sydney. Manley says satellites are effectively “little power plants in the sky, with solar and batteries” and for his clients he has “removed a techno-economic problem.”

Space power systems are typically custom-built and expensive. MP Space has developed a modular system that scalable for different spacecraft, allowing cheaper and more industrial-scale production.

“Our thesis is simple: the next generation of spacecraft will need a lot more power, and the space industry needs better ways to generate, store and manage it,” Manley said.

“We’ve seen enormous advances in power electronics, software and energy storage through electric vehicles, grid-scale energy and home batteries. MP Space is bringing that same advanced technology to spacecraft power systems, designed from the outset to be manufactured reliably and at scale.”

Power is one of space exploration’s biggest hurdles. Pic as appeared in The Australian

Blackbird partner Samantha Wong said “MP Space has a shot at revolutionising this fast-growing industry”.

“Jay and Sam have gone from solar race car clubs at uni to industry-leading capability in scalable battery system design, having built Tesla’s Powerwall from electrons to a $10bn businesslike,” Wong said.

“In less than two years, MP Space has already delivered a software-defined battery, with one of the highest gravimetric energy densities of any space battery, and will gain flight heritage this month. They are moving with speed and precision in a market that has explosive potential.

“As space unlocks more use cases, MP Space is well-placed to seize the opportunity with an indisputable hardware advantage and deep software capabilities. It’s an Aussie business redefining the global standard.”

Seraphim Space Lucas Bishop says the Tesla experience was compelling. “Drawing on their experience scaling some of the world’s most demanding energy and power hardware programs at Tesla, the team is exceptionally well placed to address two fundamental challenges facing the space industry,” he said.

“Power is a fundamental constraint on spacecraft capability, and we are seeing power requirements scale rapidly across almost every mission type. More available power directly enables more capable payloads, greater on-board processing and, ultimately, more ambitious missions.”

This article first appeared in The Australian as Former Tesla engineers raise $23m in Sydney to power space battery race.

The post Former Tesla engineers raise $23m to power space battery race appeared first on Stockhead.