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Posted On: November 3rd 2026, 08:01 am
Julian’s seed round was oversubscribed. Then it almost collapsed entirely.
After the EWOR Grand Pitch in March, he was taking up to 15 investor calls a day. Then, as signing approached, his lead kept moving the goalposts.
So, Julian kicked them out.
He and Daniel then met at 4:35am every morning at the EWOR San Francisco Residency to find a new lead. Within a week, an investor who had first texted Daniel “I can’t do it” made their first exception and led the round.
Today, Tumbleweed gives anyone a box, called a Pod, they can fill with whatever they want and send it to space.
Each Pod comes pre-certified, which cuts the paperwork needed to ship to space by 10,000x. That makes it 10x cheaper and 5x faster, with 7x less effort.
Their first mission sold out and launched in July 2026, built in 9 months for under €500K. Such a feat is practically unheard of in the space industry.
Congrats to Julian, Leonhard, Guillaume and the Tumbleweed team on their $7.7M seed round - Austria’s largest SpaceTech seed round in history.
Julian shares the full fundraising story with Daniel on the latest episode of Been There, Done That – EWOR’s podcast series dedicated to the raw, unfiltered founder stories that never make it to LinkedIn. Link in bio.
After the EWOR Grand Pitch in March, he was taking up to 15 investor calls a day. Then, as signing approached, his lead kept moving the goalposts.
So, Julian kicked them out.
He and Daniel then met at 4:35am every morning at the EWOR San Francisco Residency to find a new lead. Within a week, an investor who had first texted Daniel “I can’t do it” made their first exception and led the round.
Today, Tumbleweed gives anyone a box, called a Pod, they can fill with whatever they want and send it to space.
Each Pod comes pre-certified, which cuts the paperwork needed to ship to space by 10,000x. That makes it 10x cheaper and 5x faster, with 7x less effort.
Their first mission sold out and launched in July 2026, built in 9 months for under €500K. Such a feat is practically unheard of in the space industry.
Congrats to Julian, Leonhard, Guillaume and the Tumbleweed team on their $7.7M seed round - Austria’s largest SpaceTech seed round in history.
Julian shares the full fundraising story with Daniel on the latest episode of Been There, Done That – EWOR’s podcast series dedicated to the raw, unfiltered founder stories that never make it to LinkedIn. Link in bio.
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