Interlune Secures $18M to Advance Lunar Helium-3 Extraction and Wins Major Commercial Deals
Interlune, a space-resources startup aiming to commercialize lunar natural resources, announced in March 2024 that it had raised $18 million in seed funding as it emerged from stealth mode. The latest injection, reportedly $15 million, was led by Alexis Ohanian’s venture firm Seven Seven Six, which now joins the Interlune board through founding partner Katelin Holloway. Other backers include Aurelia Foundry Fund, Gaingels, Liquid 2 Ventures, Shasta Ventures, and a committed group of University of Michigan alumni.
Founded by former Blue Origin president Rob Meyerson, chief architect Gary Lai, and Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, Interlune’s mission is to extract lunar Helium-3 and other materials from the Moon for use in quantum computing, fusion energy, medical imaging, national security, and other high-tech markets. The company’s technology is designed to be lighter, smaller and more power-efficient than competing concepts, lowering the cost barrier for transport and operation on the Moon.
Beyond venture backing, Interlune has secured several government and institutional grants to advance its technology pipeline. In 2023, the company won a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I award to develop methods for sorting lunar regolith under simulated conditions. More recently, Interlune was awarded a NASA TechFlights grant to test regolith-processing techniques in simulated lunar environments using parabolic flight experiments.
In September 2025, Interlune revealed it had received up to $4.84 million in grant funding from the Texas Space Commission to establish a Lunar Regolith Simulant Center of Excellence near NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The facility will help replicate Moon-like soils for testing excavation and processing tools on Earth, and Interlune plans to make these simulants available to other companies and agencies.
In May 2025, Interlune disclosed a trio of commercial updates tied to its funding and development progress. The company unveiled a full-scale prototype of a lunar excavator, built in partnership with industrial equipment manufacturer Vermeer Corporation, capable of ingesting 100 metric tons of moon regolith per hour in a continuous operation. As part of the collaboration, Vermeer’s CEO Jason Andringa joined Interlune’s advisory board. Concurrently, Interlune announced that Maybell Quantum has contracted to purchase thousands of liters of Helium-3 for delivery from 2029 to 2035 to fuel its quantum refrigeration systems. The company also disclosed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to deliver three liters of lunar Helium-3 to the DOE’s Isotope Program by April 2029—marking what Interlune calls the first purchase of a non-terrestrial resource under DOE’s program.
Interlune’s roadmap envisions multiple lunar missions during this decade. Its first mission, dubbed “Crescent Moon,” is slated for 2025 to carry hyperspectral cameras as rideshare payloads. A follow-up “Prospect Moon” mission will carry sensors and demonstration tools to validate Helium-3 concentration. A third mission, “Harvest Moon,” is designed to perform a full extraction and return operation.
In a further sign of momentum, Bluefors, a Finnish firm that manufactures cryogenic cooling systems for quantum computers, has agreed to secure up to 10,000 liters of Helium-3 annually from Interlune between 2028 and 2037. This deal is one of the more substantial commercial commitments to lunar resources to date and is seen as helping to stabilize long-term supply for quantum infrastructure.
Interlune’s rising profile in space resource commercialization is being built not just on ambitious technical vision, but also on a blended funding strategy combining venture capital, government grants, and early commercial off-take agreements. The company now faces a cycle of execution: validating its systems in Earth-analog environments, executing its lunar missions, and delivering the first shipments of Helium-3 to pay customers.
