Philip Johnston’s Post

Had a jolly time drinking tea and talking end of the empire with my friends Kieran Hill at 20VC, Julien Bek at Sequoia Capital & Georgia Stevenson at Index Ventures. Since moving to the US to set up Nebular I've continued to invest about half my fund into European/UK businesses like Co:Helm, Lynq, Teton, Lumen Orbit & Trace.Space. But all these companies have eyes on the US from the moment they close their first round. If the UK and Europe want to be seen as serious players the ecosystems and the investors in them need to pick up their game and drive a cultural shift on ambition. T'was good timing to do the podcast as I put the final touches on closing Nebular I just shy of $30m in commitments. Tell yo friends if they're raising a pre-seed/seed - finally 100% focused on finding the best founders building the most interesting things. 🙏 https://lnkd.in/exmdKqqX

Vista Space (YC W24) designs and builds structural batteries for spacecraft. The growing demand for space-based services requires that satellites and other spacecraft carry vastly more energy storage than what is currently available to power everything from high-performance computers to space-based factories. While solar panels can easily be added, increasing energy capacity to store that energy typically means taking up valuable space inside the spacecraft, which makes them bigger and more expensive or requires using less power-intensive hardware. Vista has developed a structural battery module called Voltaris 1 that integrates directly into the spacecraft's structure – replacing what is usually an aluminum panel - serving as both a power source and the exterior-facing wall. With Voltaris 1, spacecraft can have double the energy capacity without increasing size— or save 15-30% in volume while maintaining the same power budget. The founders, Maxim Kraft, Petar Matejic, and Chaitanya Kore, previously worked at SpaceX, NASA, Rocket Lab, and Firefly. They were inspired by the success of structural batteries in improving electric vehicle performance, as seen in the Tesla Model Y and Cybertruck. Since joining YC at the idea stage, the team has already built the first Voltaris 1 prototype units and is scheduled to launch the first structural batteries into space no earlier than February 2025. Congrats to Vista Space on the launch!