€5m · Other round · Deeptech · Turin, Italy
Turin-based ORiS, which is developing laser-based wireless power transmission for satellites and dual-use applications, has secured €5m across a pre-seed round and grant. The package comprises €4.5m of equity led by Earlybird and co-led by Pitchdrive, with Galaxia, Vento and Piemonte Next Fund participating, plus a separate €0.5m grant from the Piedmont Region.
ORiS says the capital will support technical hiring, R&D on critical subsystems, new laboratory and clean-room capacity, a flight model for a satellite-to-satellite demonstration and further development of its LOONA drone platform. The €5m headline is the combined financing package, not a €5m equity round.
A terrestrial testbed for an orbital power service
ORiS is trying to make energy available to spacecraft after launch. Its proposed system directs laser power between assets so that satellites can recharge in orbit rather than rely only on the generation and storage hardware they carried from Earth. The company says additional energy could let operators run payloads more often, work through eclipse periods and extend useful life as solar panels degrade. Those outcomes remain the intended value proposition, not demonstrated commercial deployments.
The company is testing the same core transmission capabilities through LOONA, a wireless recharging platform for drones developed within the NATO DIANA accelerator. ORiS reports that it has transferred power to a hovering drone over more than 100 metres. That terrestrial route gives the team a nearer-term environment for refining high-power lasers, pointing, tracking and thermal control while the orbital product follows a longer mission timetable. Commercially, the two-track approach can produce engineering evidence and potential dual-use demand before an in-orbit service exists, though success with drones does not remove the separate integration and reliability work required in space.
The next proof point is an in-orbit demonstration
At the announcement, ORiS expected to deliver a flight model for a mission with DCUBED, planned for 2027, to demonstrate wireless power transmission over 10 metres between satellites. That is the clearest near-term execution milestone: the company must turn a ground-tested subsystem into hardware that can be launched, aligned and operated in orbit. ORiS has also explored lunar power transmission for surface assets in a feasibility study with Thales Alenia Space, but the 2027 demonstration remains a plan rather than a completed mission.
Founded in 2024 by four Politecnico di Torino aerospace engineers, ORiS is supported by the university's I3P incubator and ESA BIC Turin. The round funds the transition from an incubated technical programme towards flight hardware and a product company. Whether that becomes a repeatable energy service will depend on demonstration performance, customer integration and the economics of deploying power-transmission infrastructure alongside the satellites it is meant to support.
Sources checked:
ORiS company announcement · Politecnico di Torino · Tech.eu Funding Explorer deal record
