PiemonteNext is described as Italy's first regional co-investment fund. This term refers to funds that invest in companies alongside private investors, in the same round as them. The fund was created by the venture arm of CDP Venture Capital and Finpiemonte. According to Finpiemonte director Mario Alparone, following its participation in the Kurs Orbital round, the fund's investments in Piedmontese startups exceeded €1.1 million. This figure refers to the fund's entire portfolio in the region, not to the Kurs Orbital round.
A system from the Soviet past
The company's name traces back to the Kurs system, developed in the USSR in the 1980s. It is an automatic rendezvous system for spacecraft, and it was created by engineers in Kyiv, including at the Kyiv Radio Plant. According to InVenture's estimates, it has been used for more than 300 dockings of Soyuz and Progress spacecraft with Mir and the ISS. After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, supplies of Kurs to Russia ceased, and the team connected to this legacy began searching for new products based on it.
Volodymyr Usov became the founder and CEO of Kurs Orbital. In 2020, he headed the State Space Agency of Ukraine. Together with him, the company was created by Vadim Vasiliev, with whom Usov associates its founding. Sources differ on the year of foundation: some say 2021, others 2022. Most likely, development began in Ukraine in 2021, and the Italian legal entity appeared in 2022.
From patent to Turin
The Ukrainian patent application was filed on January 4, 2022, and the international PCT application on January 3, 2023. In February 2022, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. Investors began to withdraw, but the company kept its office in Turin, while development continued in Kyiv.
The first public recognition came with a victory at Start Cup Piemonte, a regional startup competition, on November 8, 2022. The project took first place, and the team received €10,000 and the Jacobacci Silver prize. In a November interview with AstroSpace, the bureau said that the ARCap vehicle was 50–60 percent ready and that the mission was planned for 2024.
In early 2023, the company completed the Saudi Space Commission Pre-Accelerator, a program with Techstars, one of the largest American accelerators. Later in 2023, the team participated in Seraphim Space Camp, a program of the British space investor Seraphim. Industry publications also took notice of the project: Space.com published a piece on August 27, 2023, and Via Satellite on November 28 of the same year. Both texts were written by Tereza Pultarova.
The round and its participants
The seed round of €3.7 million, roughly equivalent to $4 million, was announced in March 2024. It was led by OTB Ventures, and the fund's partner Wojtek Walniczek became the lead investor. The round included Credo, Galaxia—backed by CDP Venture Capital and Obloo—as well as In-Q-Tel and Inovo. PiemonteNext was one of the participants, but the fund's share remained undisclosed. At that time, the team had 11 people.
By then, the timeline for ARCap's flight had shifted. In 2022, it was slated for 2024, while the March round materials mentioned late 2025. Finpiemonte's announcement also listed the company's achievements in 2023: the Saudi Space Techstars Founder Catalyst and Seraphim Space Camp programs, as well as partnerships with Argotec, the Polytechnic University of Turin, Thales Alenia Space, the Italian Space Agency, and the European Space Agency.
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