Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast
Get to know the brightest and boldest names in European tech with Sifted’s weekly podcast, hosted by Amy Lewin. She interviews the founders, operators and investors building Europe’s most exciting startups and, in conversation with Sifted’s expert journalists, pulls back the curtain on the most intriguing companies they’ve been reporting on.
Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast
Hélène Huby, CEO of The Exploration Company: 'Only the crazy people change the world'
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Hélène Huby, founder and CEO of spacetech startup The Exploration Company, is not afraid to take risks — or fail.
Her company, which is only five years old, builds reusable and refillable vehicles to carry cargo to and from space stations in low-Earth orbit — and beyond.
It’s already (semi-) successfully sent cargo into space — and back — at a fraction of the cost, and time, achieved by other companies.
On this episode of the Sifted podcast, Hélène shares The Exploration Company’s roadmap for 2026, including fundraising plans for a “significant amount of money” to build a high-thrust rocket engine.
Hélène and Amy also get into:
- Why the space industry is set to more than double in value over the next decade
- Collaborating in space during a decidedly antagonistic geopolitical moment
- Contracts in the works
- The ideal funding roadmap for a deeptech company
- Dealing with very public failure as a CEO
- And Hélène’s hopes and dreams for Europe’s space future