Supported through ESA Business Incubation Centre (BIC) Turin, Italian startup ORiS secured €5 million in pre-seed funding to advance the development of its in-orbit wireless power transmission technology
ORiS founders
In July 2026, ORiS, a Turin-based deep-tech startup developing laser-based wireless power transmission systems for space and dual-use applications, closed a €4.5 million pre-seed round led by Earlybird and co-led by Pitchdrive, with participation from Galaxia, Vento and Piemonte Next Fund. In a separate financing milestone, ORiS also secured a €0.5 million grant through the programme “Consolidamento patrimoniale e crescita delle start up innovative” by Regione Piemonte, bringing the company’s recently secured funding to €5 million.
ORiS – which stands for Orbital Recharge in Space – is incubated at I3P, the Innovative Companies Incubator of Politecnico di Torino, and is part of the ESA BIC Turin incubation program, managed by I3P in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI), the European Space Agency (ESA), Politecnico di Torino and LINKS Foundation.
The €5 million round of funding is the largest ever raised by a startup supported by ESA BIC Turin, which has incubated a total of 35 young companies since 2021. “The support received through the ESA BIC programme has been instrumental in accelerating ORiS’ development, helping the company validate its technology, connect with industry partners, and strengthen its position within the European space ecosystem”, said Michele Iapaolo, the ESA Country Manager of ESA BIC Turin. “This proves the effectiveness of the ESA Commercialisation programmes in bringing innovative solutions into the space industry”.
Building an in-orbit energy distribution grid
Founded by four engineers who graduated from the Polytechnic University of Turin – Andrea Villa (CEO), Anna Mauro (CTO), Domenico Edoardo Sfasciamuro (CCO) and Francesco Lopez (COO) – ORiS emerged from the CDP Venture Capital ecosystem with the support of Galaxia and is building an in-orbit energy distribution grid. Its laser-based wireless power transmission technology is designed to give satellites access to additional energy directly in orbit, addressing the growing power needs of a new generation of increasingly capable and energy-intensive satellites.
“ORiS vision is to support the disruptive growth of the space economy by reshaping the standard for how satellites are designed and operated,” said Andrea Villa, CEO and Co-Founder of ORiS. “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.”
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. For future satellites, the availability of in-orbit energy on demand could change how missions are designed, opening new ways to size the electrical power system, manage payload operations and plan more ambitious missions.
“The next wave of space innovation will depend not only on better satellites, but on the infrastructure that enables them to operate more effectively,” said Dr. Frédéric du Bois-Reymond, Venture Partner at Earlybird. “ORiS is building critical energy infrastructure for orbit, and we believe this has the potential to become a foundational capability for the future space economy.”
Validating ESA-supported technology through dual-use applications
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 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.
“ORiS’ dual-use roadmap combines near-term validation with an ambitious vision for the future,” said Koen Christiaens, Managing Partner at Pitchdrive. “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.”
This dual-use approach reflects ORiS’ broader strategy: building laser-based wireless power transmission know-how across the environments where access to energy is most constrained. The company is 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.
The pre-seed funding will be used to expand ORiS’ technical team, accelerate R&D on critical subsystems, move into new offices equipped with laboratory and clean-room capabilities, develop the flight model for a future satellite-to-satellite WPT mission, and advance LOONA from prototype platform toward a product dual-use system.
About ESA BICs
This activity forms part of ESA’s ACCESS programme, which supports the commercialisation of innovative technologies in the space and non-space sectors. Through the programme’s ScaleUp element, ESA helps companies accelerate business development, technology transfer and market adoption. One of ScaleUp’s key components is the ESA Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC) network, which provides startups with funding, expert support, mentoring and access to valuable industrial and technical networks to help transform innovative ideas into successful businesses.
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