El Segundo-based Charter Space has closed a $5 million seed round, the company announced Monday, bringing its total capital raised to $8 million as it attempts to solve one of the commercial space industry's most stubborn problems: getting insurance for satellites and spacecraft that doesn't take months to secure or cost a small fortune.
Crystal Venture Partners led the oversubscribed round, joined by QED Investors, Blank Ventures, Gaingels, Hustle Fund and a cluster of fintech and space-focused investors. The timing is deliberate. After a catastrophic 2023 that saw claims approach $1 billion against roughly $550 million in collected premiums, the space insurance market has steadied somewhat, though rates remain elevated and capacity scarce. According to Aon's latest market analysis, the sector returned to profitability last year with premium income again exceeding $650 million, but underwriters are wary.
Charter's pitch is that it can bring speed and data rigor to an industry still operating largely on legacy processes. The startup runs an AI-native insurance brokerage writing coverage for space assets alongside commercial lines for aerospace and defense companies. It launched CIRC (Charter Interplanetary Risk Corporation), a nationally licensed brokerage, and claims to have built a gross written premium backlog exceeding $35 million. The company says it serves more than 50 firms across the U.S. space and defense industrial base.
Where traditional underwriting can stretch across months, Charter says it has compressed cycle times to roughly two weeks. The firm underwrites policies spanning pre-launch, launch and post-separation operations, including newer mission profiles like in-space servicing, space-based nuclear power systems and lunar resource extraction. Those categories didn't exist a decade ago; now they're becoming routine enough to need coverage.
Charter also sells Ubik, a mission management software platform designed to hoover up engineering, manufacturing and test data that feeds directly into its underwriting models. Pricing starts at $99 per month (or $1,000 annually) for commercial access, scaling to $499 monthly ($5,000 yearly) for a GovCloud tier aimed at defense contractors and government operators.
The fresh capital will go toward expanding sales and distribution, broadening insurance products to cover emerging mission types, and building what the company describes as end-to-end coverage spanning the full lifecycle of space operations. That's an ambitious scope in a market that has historically been fragmented and conservative.
"America has led the world in space exploration and innovation," said Yuk Chi Chan, Charter's co-founder and CEO, in a statement. "We need a strong, competitive insurance market that gives American innovators the confidence to take risks, grow, and lead." Chan, a former soldier and attorney, founded Charter in 2021 with CTO Yukun Yin. The company initially operated in the U.K. before relocating stateside.
Charter surfaced publicly as a finalist at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2025, where it announced the acquisition of Plover Parametrics, a Y Combinator-backed insurtech, to enable direct policy placement. At the time, Chan noted that fewer than 300 of roughly 13,000 satellites on orbit carried insurance as of 2025—a penetration rate the company hopes to lift by introducing more structured data into underwriting decisions. The startup rolled out its first insurance product at SXSW with backing from Munich Re, AXA XL, ASIC and Lloyd's broker Price Forbes.
Charter is entering a market long dominated by established brokers such as Aon, Marsh, WTW and Price Forbes. Major underwriters and reinsurers active in space insurance include AXA XL, SCOR, Convex, Fidelis, Global Aerospace, Hamilton and HDI, according to Aon's capacity mapping. These are firms with decades of relationships and deep institutional knowledge of satellite risk. Charter's advantage, if it has one, lies in speed and software rather than legacy infrastructure.
The broader market context is sobering. Significant capacity evaporated in 2024 following the heavy losses of 2023, driven in part by the ViaSat-3 satellite failure, which generated a claim of approximately $420 million. Underwriters have since tightened terms and raised rates, creating an opening for nimbler entrants willing to embrace newer data models and faster turnaround times.
Florida Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky, in a statement released by the company, called insurance "the precondition for growth in space." The involvement of Florida officials is notable given the state's concentration of launch infrastructure and aerospace contractors.
Jonathan Crystal, managing partner at Crystal Venture Partners, said Charter sits at the convergence of two sizable trends: the expansion of the commercial space economy and the demand for modernized risk assessment. "We believe Charter Space is building the platform that will help the space economy scale safely and sustainably," he said.
Charter currently lists between 11 and 50 employees on LinkedIn and joined the Commercial Space Federation earlier this year. Whether it can dent the dominance of legacy brokers remains to be seen, but the company is betting that faster underwriting and better data will matter more than decades of incumbent relationships. In a market still recovering from bruising losses, that's not an unreasonable wager.
