Varda Space Industries, an El Segundo, California-based life sciences and space manufacturing company, has raised $251 million in Series D funding to increase the cadence of its orbital manufacturing missions and expand pharmaceutical development partnerships. The financing brings the company’s total capital raised to $598 million, according to the announcement.

Varda’s manufacturing platform uses microgravity to process pharmaceutical materials, including active pharmaceutical ingredients, in ways that can produce crystal structures difficult or impossible to achieve under Earth’s gravity. The company is developing the technology as a potential addition to the drug development and manufacturing pipeline.

The new funding will support additional launches and reentry missions, as well as further pharmaceutical development. Varda has completed six successful reentry missions since its first launch in 2023 and has more than a dozen additional launches and reentries planned through 2028, according to the company.

Varda’s W-Series vehicles carry autonomous manufacturing laboratories into low Earth orbit, where pharmaceutical materials can be processed before being returned to Earth. The company says increasing mission frequency is intended to make in-space pharmaceutical processing a more repeatable manufacturing capability.

Varda said its first product manufactured in space and intended for use on Earth will be a pharmaceutical. It is working with pharmaceutical partners to advance potential applications and increase the frequency of orbital processing as it moves toward commercial use.

The company has also expanded its pharmaceutical development capabilities on the ground. In 2025, Varda opened a 10,000-square-foot laboratory in El Segundo focused on identifying and developing pharmaceutical candidates that could benefit from microgravity-enabled crystallization, including biologics such as monoclonal antibodies. That work followed a $187 million Series C financing round that brought Varda’s total funding at the time to $329 million.