Varda Space just raised $187 million in a Series C round led by natural capital and shrug capital.

CEO and co-founder Will Brewy says the funds will help the startup realize greater scale.

So what the Series C allows us to do is two big things.

First is increased cadence, meaning more flights more often, so the rate of flying, and also

allows us to build out our biologics lab, which is our way of determining which

drug molecules make sense to send to microgravity through a bunch of testing on the ground

and then preparing that formulation for flight. And so this is, this whole series C is really about

scale, more spacecraft and more drugs in them. Varda space is on the forefront of the nascent

manufacturing and space market. It has developed a small spacecraft that can carry several kilograms of payload into orbit,

where it can, for drug makers and others, support microgravity experimentation,

autonomous manufacturing, hypersonic experiments, and more.

To date, 4-year-old Varda has completed three successful missions.

Its fourth is currently in orbit, and a fifth is expected before the year is out.

On this episode, Varda's Will Brewy on drug manufacturing and microgravity,

hypersonic testing for the government, and a business model that swaps FedEx for SpaceX.

I'm Morgan Brennan, and this is Manifest Space.

Joining me now, Will Brewery, the CEO of Varda Space and Will, it's great to speak with you.

Great to speak with you too, Morgan.

So, Series C funding round, you just raise $187 million.

Break it down and what it's going to go towards.

Yeah, sure.

So to give some context here, the purpose of VARTA is to build drug formulations

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