Frontier collects $10 million from AEI HorizonX

Frontier Aerospace raised $10 million in Series A funding from AEI HorizonX, the venture capital fund formed by AE Industrial Parters and Boeing. “This latest funding round will accelerate Frontier’s engine development activities, support major expansion of manufacturing and vacuum test facilities,” Frontier Aerospace president Jim McKinnon said in a statement. “In the past, test facility availability has been by far the largest schedule driver. With this new investment, a modern test facility will be fully developed for rapid implementation supporting major upcoming development programs.” Space propulsion startup Frontier Aerospace, a successor to Frontier Engineering, was founded in Simi Valley, California, in 2014. In 2021, AE Industrial Partners subsidiary American Pacific Corp. announced a multimillion-dollar investment in Frontier Aerospace. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Frontier is providing thrusters for the Astrobotic Peregrine and Griffin Lunar Landers. In addition, Frontier is developing and testing “a range of thrust classes for NASA and government primes, for missions ranging from deep space exploration to commercial space and defense,” according to the March 21 news release. “We are proud to support Frontier in its next stage of development as it grows to meet the strong demand from NASA, commercial aerospace and defense companies for state-of-the-art propulsion solutions,” Brian Schettler, who leads AEI HorizonX. “AEI HorizonX looks forward to partnering with the Frontier team to take advantage of the new opportunities created by increased investments and innovation in the new space economy.”

Frontier Aerospace conducted extensive hot-fire testing of engine designs as part of a NASA program called Thruster for the Advancement of Low-temperature Operation in Space (TALOS). Frontier Aerospace plans to fly its first TALOS engines on Astrobotic Technology's Peregrine lunar lander. Credit: NASA

Boeing’s corporate venture capital arm, AEI HorizonX, was established in 2017. Private equity firm AE Industrial Partners manages AEI HorizonX, which has $5 billion in assets under management. AEI HorizonX focuses primarily on aerospace, defense and government services, space, power and utility services, and specialty industrial markets.