A defective screw led to the failure of a rocket launch. This company raised another 2.4 billion yuan this year to start anew.

In recent years, under the policy guidance of the low-altitude economy, this sector has become increasingly popular, attracting numerous capitals to enter the arena.

According to statistics from IT Juzi, in Q3 of 2025, there were 96 financing transactions in the domestic low-altitude economy sector, showing a significant year-on-year increase; the total financing amount was estimated to reach 10.081 billion yuan. Among them, 14 startups received single financing of over 100 million yuan, becoming the "main force of financing" in the sector.

Judging from the distribution of financing amounts, the "financing kings" in the low-altitude economy sector in Q3 were concentrated in the commercial space field - the top two on the list were both enterprises in this field, and their core businesses focused on key areas such as low-orbit satellites and reusable launch vehicles, belonging to the key infrastructure field of the low-altitude economy. The technological R & D threshold is relatively high, and the required capital scale is also relatively large.

For example, Galactic Energy announced a Series D financing of 2.4 billion yuan in September. State-owned funds such as Nanjing Innovation Investment Group, Sichuan Venture Capital Investment, and Shunxi Fund participated in the investment, making it the enterprise with the largest financing scale in the domestic low-altitude economy sector in Q3 of 2025.

IT Juzi noticed that two years ago, Galactic Energy had an unsuccessful rocket launch. The reason for the failure was actually an unqualified screw.

According to reports, at 12:59 on September 21, 2023, the Ceres-1 (Yao-11) launch vehicle was launched at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China. However, about 67.5 seconds after the flight, the rocket lost its attitude stability, resulting in the failure of the launch mission. This launch was originally the tenth launch of this model of rocket, and nine previous launch missions had been successfully completed.

According to the investigation of Galactic Energy Aerospace Company, the main reason for the launch failure was the abnormal ablation of the nozzle expansion section of the first-stage engine. During the screw hole machining process of the nozzle expansion section assembly, due to improper operation, internal defects occurred in the carbon cloth layer, which in turn led to the ablation problem of the expansion section, and ultimately caused the rocket's flight attitude to become unstable.

Source of the picture of the failed launch of Ceres-1: Internet

This incident also had an impact on the Jilin-1 commercial observation satellite carried. Through this incident, it can be seen that space launches are complex and highly risky, and every detail may affect the final success.

Galactic Energy announced in September this year that it had obtained 2.4 billion yuan in financing. The funds are mainly used to accelerate the research and development of its "Pallas" series of reusable liquid launch vehicles and the "Ceres-2" medium-sized solid launch vehicle.

According to the latest news, on October 23, Galactic Energy signed a listing tutoring agreement with Huatai United Securities and officially launched the A-share IPO process.

It is worth mentioning that Sichuan has been continuously making efforts in the low-altitude economy this year. On the one hand, the "Ceres-1" of Galactic Energy is manufactured in the Linkong Economic Zone of Ziyang City, Sichuan Province, and Sichuan state-owned assets (Sichuan Venture Capital Investment) increased their investment in Galactic Energy this year.

On the other hand, Chengdu state-owned assets also participated in the investment in i-Space this year and became one of the shareholders of this private commercial space unicorn.

Public information shows that i-Space announced in September this year that it had completed the first batch of 700 million yuan in Series D+ financing. This round of financing was led by a fund under Chengdu Advanced Capital, and multiple funds with Chengdu state-owned asset backgrounds participated together.

The raised funds will be mainly used for the R & D of the reusable Hyperbola-3 launch vehicle, the construction of the rocket production base project in Shuangliu District, Chengdu, and the construction of the engine production line in Fucheng District, Mianyang.

As early as December 24, 2020, i-Space launched the IPO tutoring and planned to be listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. As of now, the IPO tutoring period has exceeded four and a half years, and Tianfeng Securities and CITIC Securities are the tutoring institutions.

From the perspective of the industrial chain, enterprises focusing on the manufacturing of complete aircraft are quite favored by capitals. As a representative enterprise in the field of intelligent flying cars in China, XPeng HT Aero completed the remaining 100 million US dollars in the total Series B financing of 250 million US dollars in the third quarter of this year, and its performance was quite eye-catching.

XPeng HT Aero's flagship product, the "Land Aircraft Carrier", is the world's first split-type flying car. It made its debut at the North American CES in January 2024 and is expected to be mass-produced and delivered in 2026.

In terms of production capacity, in October 2024, the manufacturing base of XPeng HT Aero's flying cars officially started construction. The base is located in the Guangzhou Development Zone and will be used to produce the flying part of the split-type flying car "Land Aircraft Carrier", with a planned annual production capacity of 10,000 units.

In the domestic market, XPeng HT Aero will first be launched in low-altitude open pilot areas such as Guangdong, Hainan, and Hunan. It has completed the first flight of the "Land Aircraft Carrier" in Changde, Hunan, and signed more than 40 flight camps in Hainan; at the same time, it is promoting the "Flying Experience Plan" to cover more cities, locking in C-end users in advance, and exploring cooperation scenarios with emergency rescue and cultural tourism groups at the B-end level.

In the overseas market, XPeng HT Aero will focus on breaking into the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and European markets in 2025. It has received 600 orders in the Middle East and completed the certification of the special flight permit in the UAE; after the mass production and delivery in 2026, it plans to supply products to the overseas high-net-worth market first, and simultaneously promote the EASA airworthiness certification in Europe, aiming to become a core participant in the global flying car market within three years.

Volant Aero and EWATT Aero, which also focus on the electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) field, also successfully completed financing of hundreds of millions of yuan in the third quarter and are representative innovative enterprises in the low-altitude economy sector.

On October 13, 2025, Volant Aero officially announced the completion of hundreds of millions of yuan in Series B financing. This round of financing was led by CMC Capital, and new investors such as SAIC Capital joined. Old shareholders Legend Capital, CDH Baifu, and Zigong Chuangfa continued to increase their investment.

The company's first mass-produced product, the compound-wing eVTOL "VE25-100 Tianxing", can carry 1 pilot + 5 passengers, with a designed range of 200 - 400 km, a cruising speed of 235 km/h, and is powered by pure electricity. It is positioned in the commercial passenger transportation field and also covers multiple scenarios such as medical emergency rescue and freight.

At the 2025 International Low-Altitude Economy Expo held in July, Volant Aero signed a tripartite cooperation agreement with Thailand's Pan Pacific Company and AVIC Engineering, reaching a purchase order of 500 aircraft (with a total amount of 1.75 billion US dollars), which is the largest single international order for high-level passenger eVTOLs in China so far; this batch of aircraft will be used for short-distance inter-island and intra-island transportation and emergency rescue in Thailand and the Maldives, and AVIC Engineering will simultaneously support the construction of low-altitude infrastructure.

On August 28, 2025, EWATT Aero completed hundreds of millions of yuan in Series A financing, led by Jinpu Investment, followed by Seiko Technology, Inovance Electric (an enterprise in the field of aviation electric drives), Shengjing Jiacheng, and Ralph Ventures. Old shareholder Bangsheng Capital increased its investment.

The company's independently developed ET9 eVTOL completed its first flight in March 2024. In 2025, it focuses on promoting the implementation of "policy-adapted scenarios". For example, relying on the policy of "Low-Altitude Economy Demonstration Province" in Jiangsu, it actively participates in the low-altitude open pilot projects in the province (such as the short-distance low-altitude transportation demonstration lines in Nanjing and Suzhou), and verifies the reliability of the product through "scenario demonstrations" to accumulate cases for the subsequent conversion of large-scale orders.

In terms of international cooperation, EWATT Aero signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the listed new energy enterprise Robo.ai in the UAE in October and plans to jointly develop eVTOL models suitable for the Middle East market. With the help of Robo.ai's regional channels, it explores overseas commercialization paths.

Currently, the range of pure-electric eVTOLs is about 150 - 200 kilometers, and it is expected to reach 300 - 400 kilometers by 2030, but it still cannot meet the needs of special transportation, emergency management, and inter-city travel, and it is also difficult to achieve short-distance and high-frequency economic operations when the fast-charging/swapping facilities are not perfect.

Another technical route - the tilt-rotor aircraft has emerged. Compared with the multi-rotor and compound-wing configurations, it can achieve faster and more efficient flight.

In September this year, Dream Sky, a company in Suzhou, Jiangsu, which focuses on the manufacturing of intelligent electric tilt-rotor aircraft, also announced the completion of 100 million yuan in Pre-Series A financing, led by Chaoxi Capital.

It is reported that in August 2024, Dream Sky Technology completed the first-phase test flight of the ton-class hybrid tilt-rotor eVTOL (DF600), ranking first in China. It is the second hybrid tilt-rotor eVTOL enterprise in the world to enter the test flight stage after the US JOBY company.

The take-off of the low-altitude economy cannot be separated from the joint efforts of the upstream supply chain and infrastructure construction. Multiple enterprises in key components and core technologies received capital support in Q3.

For example, Xinjie Energy (Shenzhen, Guangdong), which develops low-altitude solid-state lithium batteries, Daoyuan Technology (Guangzhou, Guangdong), which designs high-precision positioning sensors, and Juxin Microelectronics (Wuhan, Hubei), which focuses on analog and mixed-signal chips, all received single financing of hundreds of millions of yuan.

In addition, Feihong Testing (Baotou, Inner Mongolia), which provides comprehensive support services for unmanned systems, and Weifen Zhifei (Hangzhou, Zhejiang), which develops the brain of aerial robots, also received 291 million yuan and 200 million yuan in financing respectively.

The financing progress of these enterprises reflects the capital's attention to the core technologies in the upstream of the low-altitude economy and also provides key support for the stable development of the entire industrial chain.

This article is from the WeChat public account "IT Juzi" (ID: itjuzi521), author: Wu Meimei, published by 36Kr with authorization.