Raphael Roettgen, CFA, is the founding partner of E2MC (Earth-to-Mars Capital), a space-focused early-stage venture capital firm based in Arlington VA, with over 30 space investments globally to date. E2MC co-founded two space accelerators: KickSky, India’s first space accelerator, and the Orbital Edge accelerator in the U.S., in partnership with ISS National Lab.
Roettgen is also chairman of Space Asset Acquisition Corp., a $230 million NASDAQ-listed SPAC, and a co-founder and CEO of Prometheus Life Technologies, a Swiss space biotech startup focused on organoids. He has lectured on space entrepreneurship and investing at universities, including the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Nova Business School, Harvard Business School, and Stanford.
Roettgen hosts the popular Space Business Podcast and is the author of “To Infinity,” an introductory book on the space economy. Previously, he held senior roles at global investment banks and hedge funds. Roettgen holds degrees in finance and psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, machine learning from PUC-Rio, and space studies from the International Space University.
As access to low Earth orbit expands, space-based research is opening possibilities in drug discovery, formulation, and manufacturing. In Part 1, the authors look at how microgravity changes biology and chemistry in ways that can’t be reproduced on Earth and where it fits from target discovery to life cycle management.