Charter Space was a finalist in last year's TechCrunch Startup Battlefield competition. The company has completed a $5 million seed round of financing to continue expanding its nascent space insurance business.

The startup, headquartered in El Segundo, California, stated that since launching its nationwide licensed insurance brokerage business in May of this year, it has begun providing services to more than 50 companies within the U.S. aerospace and defense industry chain.

This round of financing was led by Crystal Venture Partners, a firm specializing in insurance. QED and Blank Ventures, two fintech investment institutions, early-stage venture capital firm Hustle Fund, as well as the investment consortium Gaingels which supports founding teams with insufficient representation, also participated in the investment.

Problems often occur in the aerospace industry, which is why companies are always formulating emergency response plans. However, insuring objects that enter space is still not common. The founder and CEO of Charter Space, Yuk Chi Chan, believes that this is mainly due to the high underwriting costs for subjects such as satellites. As Charter states on their website, a common experience for space companies is that ordinary insurance companies "panick at the sight of a bunch of intimidating scientific terms."

When Chan and co-founder Yukun Yin founded Charter Space, their initial goal was to create a centralized software system for aerospace engineering, aiming to integrate clients' technical, manufacturing, and testing data. However, they later realized that integrating this data into the underwriting process also held great value.

"We hope that more satellites can be insured, because that would mean the entire industry would be much safer. If we can expand insurance coverage, it's a good thing for the aerospace industry chain first; more companies will have a safety net... But it's also healthier for the overall economy, as it will encourage global investment from different sources of alternative capital," Chan told TechCrunch last year. "You won't rely solely on venture capital or certain types of growth equity anymore. You can start to introduce debt, credit, and various other options that are common in other leading industries."

Due to the limited number of participants in the aerospace field in the past, space companies had access to few financial services. Until recently, this industry was still dominated by governments and defense contractors, which tend to be slow and conservative in their actions after the end of the Cold War.

However, the explosive growth of new aerospace companies over the past decade has largely been due to the Falcon rockets from SpaceX, which have reduced the cost of sending objects into orbit. This means that there is now sufficient demand to support the establishment and growth of companies like Charter Space. New satellite and spacecraft manufacturers are emerging continuously, and new launch service providers are also competing to fill the void left by the Falcon rockets that are set to retire soon.

Managing Partner Jonathan Crystal stated in the declaration: " Charter Space is at the intersection of two tremendous opportunities: the rapid growth of the commercial aerospace economy, and the modern approaches required to understand and underwrite the increasingly complex risks that come with this growth. Insurance is a key infrastructure for a strong and sustainable aerospace industry, and we believe that Charter Space is building a platform to help the aerospace economy expand safely and sustainably."

Michael Yaworsky, who still serves as the Insurance Commissioner of Florida, one of the main launch sites in the United States, stated that insurance is "a prerequisite for space growth" and mentioned that this will open doors for more local investments. In a statement to TechCrunch, he said, "States that lead in the insurance field will become destinations for future industrial capital investment and lay the foundation for continued American prosperity for the next 250 years and beyond."

Charter Space indicates that to date, the company has raised a total of 8 million US dollars and will use this round of seed funding to expand its sales team and insurance products. The company is also considering launching more products, including coverage for "new types of mission concepts," such as space nuclear energy, lunar missions, and on-orbit services for other spacecraft.