ORiS, a Turin-based DeepTech startup developing laser-based wireless power transmission systems for space and dual-use applications, has closed a €4.5 million pre-Seed round. The round was led by Earlybird and co-led by Pitchdrive, with participation from Galaxia, Vento and Piemonte Next Fund. The company has also secured a €500k (€0.5
Rahul Raj
ORiS, a Turin-based DeepTech startup developing laser-based wireless power transmission systems for space and dual-use applications, has closed a €4.5 million pre-Seed round.
The round was led by Earlybird and co-led by Pitchdrive, with participation from Galaxia, Vento and Piemonte Next Fund. The company has also secured a €500k (€0.5 million) grant through the Piedmont Region’s “Consolidamento patrimoniale e crescita delle start up innovative” programme. This brings the company’s recently secured funding to €5 million.
“ORiS’ vision is to support the disruptive growth of the space economy by reshaping the standard for how satellites are designed and operated. We want to optimise satellites for high performance and profitability. Our first step is to make energy in orbit a commodity, available at any time, just as we are used to here on Earth,” said Andrea Villa, CEO and co-founder of ORiS.
ORiS was founded in 2024 at Politecnico di Torino by Andrea Villa (CEO), Anna Mauro (CTO), Domenico Edoardo Sfasciamuro (CCO), and Francesco Lopez (COO) while they were completing their MSc in Aerospace Engineering, with the support and technical guidance of Prof. Stefano Mauro. It was supported by the I3P Incubator of Politecnico di Torino and the ESA BIC Turin programme, and it emerged from the CDP Venture Capital ecosystem with support from Galaxia.
The company is building an in-orbit energy distribution grid. It states that its laser-based wireless power transmission technology is designed to give satellites access to additional energy directly in orbit.
It claims to be addressing the growing power needs of a new generation of increasingly capable and energy-intensive satellites. It further notes that for spacecraft already in orbit, this could allow operators to use their payloads more often, operate through eclipse periods, and extend mission lifetime as solar panels degrade.
Stating another application of its technology, ORiS emphasises that the availability of in-orbit energy on demand could change how missions are designed for future satellites, opening new ways to size the electrical power system, manage payload operations and plan more ambitious missions.
While ORiS’ mid-term objective is to deliver energy between satellites in orbit, its technology is already being validated through LOONA, the company’s wireless recharging prototype platform for drones, developed within NATO DIANA’s accelerator programme.
ORiS reports that it has demonstrated wireless power transfer to a hovering drone at more than 100 metres, giving the company a near-term dual-use application and a practical testbed for the same laser-based power transmission capabilities it is developing for space
The company further emphasised that this dual-use approach aligns with ORiS’s broader strategy, which involves building laser-based wireless power transmission know-how across the environments where access to energy is most constrained.
It claims to be among the first European players developing this capability across terrestrial dual-use applications, Low Earth Orbit and lunar infrastructure. For lunar applications, ORiS is working on wireless power transmission to surface assets such as rovers, a use case the team has already explored in a feasibility study for Thales Alenia Space.
“ORiS’ dual-use roadmap combines near-term validation with an ambitious vision for the future. LOONA gives the company a faster path to validating its core wireless power technology and building commercial momentum, while supporting its broader vision of making energy more accessible in space,” said Koen Christiaens, Managing Partner at Pitchdrive.
The company plans to use this capital to expand ORiS’ technical team, accelerate R&D on critical subsystems, relocate to new offices with laboratory and clean-room facilities, develop the flight model for a future satellite-to-satellite WPT mission, and advance LOONA from a prototype platform towards a product dual-use system.
By the end of July, ORiS expects to deliver a flight model for its first in-orbit mission with DCUBED, planned for 2027 and designed to demonstrate wireless power transmission over a 10-metre distance.
