HELSINKI — Hongqing Technology, the satellite manufacturing affiliate of launch firm Landspace, has secured one of the largest single raises for a Chinese commercial satellite maker.
The funding round, announced July 2, raised more than 1.3 billion yuan ($191 million) and takes Hongqing’s total financing to more than 2.5 billion yuan ($368 million). The company says it provides systematic full-chain services for low-Earth orbit constellation projects, but also filed the Honghu-3 constellation with the ITU in May 2024, planning 10,000 satellites across 160 planes, becoming China’s third 10,000-plus constellation filing after the national Guowang and Shanghai-led Qianfan (Thousand Sails) programs.
The round was jointly led by investment arms of China Construction Bank and ICBC alongside Jinpu Capital. Other participants include Bank of China, Bank of Communications, Agricultural Bank and CITIC-linked vehicles plus regional state funds from Sichuan, Chengdu, Xiamen and Hunan, along with Beijing Advanced Manufacturing Fund and E-Town Capital.
The participants notably include investment arms of all five big state banks, including several of their financial asset investment companies (AICs), which have been empowered since late 2024 to directly invest in strategic technology. This policy has helped power a surge of investment in commercial space and the growing number of IPOs.
The round of financing will be mainly used for company operations, research and development investment, and team building, to further enhance Hongqing Technology’s core capabilities in satellite networking services, according to the company statement.
Hongqing Technology was founded in 2017 with Landspace as the largest shareholder and describes itself as China’s only integrated satellite constellation solution provider with synergistic rocket-satellite capabilities. Landspace flies the methane-fueled Zhuque-2E and is working to bring its reusable, stainless-steel Zhuque-3—designed for megaconstellation launches—into regular service. The company performed a static fire for the Zhuque-3 Y2 June 29.
Headquartered in Beijing E-Town’s aerospace district, the company produces flat-panel stackable satellites and uses in-house subsystems including the Jinwu-200 krypton Hall thrusters, tested on a Honghu satellite launched by a Landspace Zhuque-2 rocket in December 2023. Hongqing has a Shanghai testing and development base and the Xiong’an intelligent satellite manufacturing base, aiming to be able to produce between 100-500 satellites annually by 2026.
The company appears to be positioning itself as providing end-to-end constellation solutions. Hongqing built one of the four direct-to-device satellite internet technology test satellites launched May 31 on a Long March 2D rocket, and stated following the launch that it continues to secure complete satellite orders from core domestic constellation operators.
It is not clear that the 2024 Honghu-3 filing has received project approval from China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), nor has Hongqing demonstrated deployment progress.
Competitors would notably include GalaxySpace, which contributes to the Guowang constellation, production of which is led by state-owned CAST and IAMCAS. Genesat, meanwhile, is tied to the Qianfan project. MinoSpace, which is mid-IPO, appears focused more on remote sensing than communications.
The large funding round appears to show state investors willing to bet on the Landspace-Hongqing vertically integrated approach, which echoes SpaceX-Starlink and the move earlier this week by Rocket Lab to acquire satellite operator Iridium. The funding also follows Chinese efforts to establish a broad, diverse satellite manufacturing base capable of producing thousands of spacecraft annually.of spacecraft annually.
