Gama, a French manufacturer of ultra-light deployable solar arrays designed for satellites, has closed a €15M seed funding round backed by Transition, Planet A, Draper Associates, and Manta Ray. The investment will enable the company to move its Wing deployable array system from the prototype phase into full-scale manufacturing at its facility in Ivry-sur-Seine, near Paris, with the help of former SpaceX Starlink engineers.
The underlying thesis driving Gama's strategy centres on a shift in what limits satellite capability. While launch vehicles have become affordable, power generation has emerged as the critical bottleneck. Next-generation constellations designed for direct-to-device connectivity, broadband coverage, and orbital computing all demand substantially more electrical output per satellite than their predecessors. Since all that power originates from solar array surface area, and every square centimetre must compress into a rocket's payload shroud, the engineering challenge has fundamentally changed.
For years the hard part of space was getting there
Andrew Nutter, CEO and co-founder
Nutter continued: launch got cheap, and the constraint moved to power.
Today's satellite builders typically depend on specialised III-V solar cells, manufactured in limited quantities by a small number of suppliers with delivery windows stretching beyond a year. Gama's approach diverges sharply: it sources high-volume silicon cells originally designed for terrestrial rooftop installations and engineers them for the space environment. Once production reaches full capacity, the company projects lead times of six months and what it describes as the lowest cost-per-watt figures available in the sector.
Rather than positioning Wing as a standalone solar panel, Gama frames it as an integrated power platform. The system combines solar generation, automated sun-tracking mechanisms, power regulation, optional battery storage, and the control software required to maintain satellite stability when operating with an exceptionally large array. By controlling both hardware and firmware, Gama argues its design can evolve as satellites themselves expand in size and capability.
Market validation is already materialising. Last September, Gama announced a partnership with Eclipse Space, a constellation-development company founded by former SpaceX Starlink engineers, to provide arrays as the power foundation for its satellite platform. A demonstration unit is scheduled for deployment in summer 2027.
The SpaceX heritage extends across both organisations involved in the deal. Gama's technical leadership includes co-founder and CTO Daniel Chapman and VP of engineering Duncan Adams, both of whom previously designed Starlink hardware and established its manufacturing operations.
Building one great piece of hardware is not the hard part. Building thousands is
Daniel Chapman, CTO
The funding will support construction of the manufacturing facility, expanded quality assurance testing, and approximately 60 new engineering positions, effectively tripling the company's current headcount of 30.
Gama's trajectory reflects a strategic pivot. The company initially pursued solar-sail propulsion technology, launching its Gama Alpha demonstrator in 2023 with backing from the French space agency CNES. While the deployable-structure expertise proved transferable, the propulsion ambition was shelved in favour of the power-systems opportunity.
This funding round arrives during an active period for European space hardware development, ranging from PAVE Space's substantial seed investment in orbital tugs to the growing network of component manufacturers supporting Europe's constellation ambitions. Gama's wager remains focused and ambitious: that the company capable of industrialising orbital power generation will become the essential supplier upon which every competitor's future depends.
Source: The Next Web
