Google Ventures just wrote a $30 million check for a company that wants to build a stock exchange for space. Not the metaphorical kind. The literal, “buying and selling rocket services between governments and companies” kind.
Nebex, a New York-based fintech startup founded by Tejpaul Bhatia, closed the seed round with GV at the helm. The company’s pitch: build a standardized online platform that connects US space technology and services providers with foreign government buyers and investors. Think of it as the missing marketplace layer for an industry that’s been doing deals over email chains and handshake agreements.
What Nebex actually does
The platform aims to standardize these transactions, creating something closer to a proper exchange with transparent pricing, improved liquidity, and streamlined deal flow.
One notable distinction worth flagging for this audience: Nebex has no crypto or blockchain component whatsoever. In an era where nearly every fintech startup feels obligated to bolt on a token or decentralized ledger, Nebex is going the purely traditional finance route.
The founder’s resume reads like a tech-finance greatest hits album
Tejpaul Bhatia isn’t building this from a dorm room. He previously served as CEO of Axiom Space starting April 25, 2025, the company that’s literally building a commercial space station. Before that, he held roles at both Google and Citi Ventures, giving him a rare combination of big tech operational experience and institutional finance credibility.
The $30 million seed round is also eyebrow-raising in its own right. Seed rounds of that size are uncommon even in the current venture environment, and they typically signal that the lead investor, in this case Alphabet’s venture arm, sees a category-defining opportunity rather than just an interesting experiment. For context, most seed rounds in fintech land somewhere between $2 million and $10 million. Nebex pulled in three to fifteen times that range before shipping a product.
