Bulent Altan
Managing Partner
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- Full Name
- Bulent Altan
- Title
- Founding Partner
- Firm
- Alpine Space Ventures
- Firm Type
- Venture Capital
- Investment Stage
- Early stage
- Check Size
- Alpine states it typically invests €10 million to €20 million initially; TechCrunch reported checks up to €5.4 million / €5 million from Fund I.
- Target Company Profile
- Space and space-enabled companies with established customer pipeline, initial revenues from first product versions, strong technical teams, customer focus, and rapid iteration.
- Sector Focus
- Space industrial base; components, satellite manufacturing, operations, service provisioning, ground infrastructure, data processing, space-enabled applications, telecommunications, Earth observation, dual-use / defense-adjacent infrastructure.
- Geographic Focus
- Europe and the United States, with a broad mandate to build Europe’s space industrial base and selective U.S. investments.
- Location
- Munich, Germany; also associated with Los Angeles / United States.
Background
Bulent Altan is a Turkish-American aerospace executive, engineer, and investor best known for his early career at SpaceX and his later work building Alpine Space Ventures. Alpine Space Ventures identifies him as a founding partner and describes him as a space-industry veteran who helped establish SpaceX’s avionics department and served as a vice president overseeing Falcon, Dragon, and early Starlink work.
Altan studied computer science at the Technical University of Munich and aerospace engineering at Stanford University. He joined SpaceX in 2004 and worked there through major Falcon 1, Falcon 9, Dragon, and Starlink phases, including leadership roles in avionics, guidance, navigation, and control and satellite mission assurance.
After SpaceX, Altan worked in the European space ecosystem, including roles associated with Airbus Defense and Space, TechFounders, and Mynaric. Mynaric announced in 2019 that Altan, formerly a SpaceX Starlink vice president, was joining its management board; he later served as CEO / co-CEO and helped steer the laser-communications company toward U.S. and constellation customers.
In 2020, Altan co-founded Alpine Space Ventures with Joram Voelklein in Munich. TechCrunch reported that they started Alpine after first investing personally in Isar Aerospace and seeing parallels between Europe’s space market and the early U.S. NewSpace market. Alpine closed a €170 million / $184 million first fund in July 2024, backed by LPs including more than 20 early SpaceX employees, the European Investment Fund, and the NATO Innovation Fund.
Investment Thesis & Focus
- Alpine Space Ventures invests exclusively in early-stage companies in the space sector and describes its focus as “space (enabled) industries.”
- The firm’s stated investment universe is the space industrial base: components, satellite manufacturing, operations, service provisioning, and data processing, not speculative “science fiction” concepts.
- Altan told TechCrunch: “We are investing in the wake of” SpaceX, meaning Alpine backs companies benefiting from cheaper launch and a growing satellite economy rather than directly competing with SpaceX.
- Alpine usually looks for early-stage companies that already have a customer pipeline and initial revenue from first product versions, while staying in touch with earlier-stage teams to track progress.
- The firm says it backs European and U.S. space companies, with a particular mandate to strengthen Europe’s space industrial base.
- Alpine says it is selective and high-conviction, prioritizing teams with market insight, strong customer focus, rapid iteration, and both technical and business strength.
- TechCrunch reported Fund I planned no more than 10-15 investments, with significant capital reserved for follow-on rounds.
Notable Investments
- Isar Aerospace - German launch startup; Altan was reported as an early personal investor, and TechCrunch reported Alpine’s origin followed Altan and Voelklein’s early personal investment in the company.
- K2 Space - Torrance-based satellite-platform company building large satellites for next-generation heavy launch; Alpine lists it as a portfolio company.
- Northwood Space - Torrance-based ground-segment company building high-capacity, programmable ground stations for space data connectivity; Alpine lists it as a portfolio company.
- Reflex Aerospace - Berlin-based satellite manufacturer building payload-specific satellite platforms; Alpine participated in Reflex’s €50 million Series A announced in November 2025.
- Blackwave - Munich-based maker of composite structures and carbon-overwrapped pressure vessels for launchers and spacecraft; Alpine lists it as a portfolio company.
- Source Energy - Longmont, Colorado company building turnkey solar power systems and standardized solar arrays for spacecraft; Alpine lists it as a portfolio company.
- constellr - Munich-based thermal-imaging satellite company building a temperature-based data layer for security and commercial applications; Alpine lists it as a portfolio company.
- Morpheus Space - Dresden-based maker of electric propulsion systems and a satellite mobility platform; Alpine lists it as a portfolio company.
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