Stoke Space Secures $1 Billion Series E Funding
Stoke Space has raised an initial $1 billion in a Series E funding round, bringing total capital raised to $2.3 billion.
Stoke Space has closed an initial $1 billion tranche of a Series E funding round, the company announced. This brings the startup's total capital raised to $2.3 billion, with approximately $2.1 billion secured since January 2025.
Point72 Ventures and Spark Capital co-led the round, with both firms having invested since Stoke's 2021 Series A. Returning investors General Innovation, Glade Brook Capital, US Innovative Technology Fund, Washington Harbour Partners, Woven Capital, and Y Combinator also participated alongside new, undisclosed backers.
Funding for Flight and Infrastructure
The new capital will scale manufacturing, testing, launch, and recovery infrastructure. This push supports preparations for the first flight of Stoke's Nova Pathfinder rocket, a milestone that has shifted from late 2026 to early 2027. The company recently completed proto-qualification of Pathfinder's first stage in June, conducting 46 structural tests at its Moses Lake, Washington facility.
Stoke is expanding that test site sevenfold to 550 acres. Its rebuild of Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, the historic pad used for John Glenn's 1962 orbital flight, is nearly complete. "It just needs a rocket," the source report notes.
The Pathfinder Vehicle and Roadmap
Stoke's focus remains on full reusability. The company plans to prove its technology through a series of Pathfinder test flights scheduled for 2027 and 2028. The rocket features a liquid-hydrogen-cooled metallic heat shield that Stoke claims will allow for 100 reuses.
The funding will also help expand Stoke's roadmap toward a higher-capacity vehicle called Nova Block 2, which the company publicly disclosed for the first time. Stoke says it has been developing Block 2 in parallel for years, targeting a first launch in 2029.
| Vehicle | Configuration | Payload to LEO | Key Engine Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nova Pathfinder | Fully Reusable | 3,000 kg | 7 first-stage Zenith engines |
| Nova Pathfinder | Expendable | 7,000 kg | 7 first-stage Zenith engines |
| Nova Block 2 | Fully Reusable | 15 metric tons | 14 first-stage Zenith engines; 12 independent upper-stage engines |
Block 2 is designed to slot between Rocket Lab's Neutron and Relativity's Terran R in capacity. Its first stage doubles the engine count from Pathfinder's seven to fourteen Zenith engines. The upper stage switches from shared turbopumps to twelve independent engines, a design Stoke says allows the stage to keep operating if one engine fails.
Unlocking National Security Missions
The first successful flight of Nova Pathfinder is also key to unlocking Stoke's national security work. The company joined the US Space Force's National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 pool in March 2025 but cannot compete for task orders until Nova flies. The Space Force tripled the Lane 1 program's funding ceiling to $17 billion in July, expanding it to roughly 170 expected missions.
Stoke CEO and cofounder Andy Lapsa framed the two-vehicle strategy in a statement. "Pathfinder allows us to learn quickly, reduce risk, and prove the hardest parts of a fully reusable architecture in flight," he said. "Nova Block 2 scales those lessons into the capacity and cadence our customers are asking for." The company's investors have continued to fund its vision, committing substantial capital ahead of the rocket's inaugural flight.
