# Tesseract Higher-performance, cheaper propulsion systems for satellites ## Elevator pitch Tesseract is a space transportation company that builds maneuvering rocket propulsion systems for satellites. All satellites need propulsion but current options are expensive, toxic, and/or have poor performance. We offer a better, safe-to-handle, higher-performance propulsion option for the large number of small satellites that will soon be flying in space. Our new system is twice as good and half the cost of our closest competitor. - Canonical URL: https://wefunder.com/tesseract - Entity ID: wefunder:company:22072 - Last updated: 2026-06-19T05:00:07Z - Generated at: 2026-06-20T02:45:40Z ## Quick facts - Customers include NASA and OrbitFab (flown several missions to the International Space Station). - Y Combinator 2017 alum. Other alumni include Dropbox, Stripe, and Airbnb. - Providing the propulsion system for the CAPSTONE mission, launching in Dec 2020. ## Active fundraises - wefunder:fundraise:15732: 4(a)(6) successful (USD) ## FAQ 1. **Hi, it's great to learn something from these pitches - nice presentation and certainly a compelling niche. My questions: 1. Is anything about your system proprietary? 2. Given how potentially fruitful this area is, can you say more about the competitive landscape? 3. I know yo...** - Hi Alan - Thanks for your interest in Tesseract. 1. Yes, all our thruster and propulsion system designs are proprietary. 2. Competitors break into three large categories: -Toxic chemical -Green chemical -Electric Toxic chemical propulsion (hydrazine, etc) is high performance, but has high safety/handling costs and expensive hardware. It’s dominated by large aerospace primes like Aerojet Rocketdyne. It has worked well for large GEOsats, but all the market growth is in small LEOsats, which want... 2. **You make it clear that your green technology is currently ahead of your competitors. Does this include competitors that are not using 'green' technology? Asked another way, are there any satellite propulsion systems, no matter the fuel source, that have better efficiency, perf...** - Hi Austin - Thanks for the great question and for your investment. So, there are two measures of fuel efficiency for a rocket engine in common use for this application. The first is specific impulse, measured in seconds. This tells you how much impulse you get for a given mass of fuel. State of the art toxic propellant thrusters get anywhere from 280 to 330 seconds. Our thrusters can match the specific impulse of the toxic propellant thrusters while using non-toxic propellant. The other major... 3. **Just want to point out that Spacefab is a satellite company that just closed their WeFunder fundraise. You may want to reach out to them as a potential customer/partner.** - Thanks for the heads up Craig, and for your investment. We’ll be sure to reach out. 4. **What patents currently or will protect your technology?** - Hi Edgar - We are keeping our designs trade secret, rather than using patents. This is fairly common in aerospace (SpaceX does the same). Since this isn’t the kind of product that you can just buy off a shelf, reverse engineering is less of a concern than someone using publicly available info, like a patent, and creatively engineering a way to circumvent the protected IP. 5. **When do you anticipate having sales, and in what dollar amounts? My understanding is that it is a very very long process. Also, please describe your competitive landscape in more detail. Thank you.** - Historically, this has definitely been true. Flight heritage has been king, and establishing sufficient flight heritage to meet the requirements for an operational spacecraft was a multi-year process. This is still quite true for the large geosynchronous communications satellites. However, the needs are different for the new, low Earth orbit communications constellation satellites. The operators and manufacturers in this new growth sector still want a diligent flight qualification test progra... ## Team - Erik Franks (CEO) - Jacob Teufert (CTO) - Jeff Gibson (COO) ## Recent posts - Great news keep up the good work  (2019-10-13T22:07:07Z) ## Q&A - Q: Hi, great answers to these questions - thoughtful and seemingly transparent. My only hesitation has to do with others with deep pockets making these same improvements. In one place you say it would take a competitor "years" to get to where you are, yet from the looks of it you really ramped up just a year ago or so. If a company already had a ton of resources to dedicate, why would it take them so long to get to where you are. Related: I completely understand the fact that you are not pursuing patents, but can you give more detail as to why it would be so difficult for another company to figure out what you've done? (I'm concerned that if it was a major innovation maybe it would be worth patenting because it would not have too many work arounds.) By the way, have you seen the company on another site developing a system that launches satellites from a hot air balloon already close to low orbit altitude? Thanks! - A: We are talking with lawyers about patenting certain innovations. There are a lot of steps particular to aerospace that lead to long development timelines. If a competitor even just copied a product but had no spaceflight heritage or testing data and went to customers they would not be able to sell without completing the same effort. Even once that's completed they would only have equal performance with less spaceflight time. We don't intend to stand still and will continue to advance our products over time and expect to have economies of scale that allow us to reduce cost of production and improve efficiency and performance. - Q: any updates the stock certificate? I would like to know how much is my invest worth now? - Q: Any updates for us!!! Looks to be another crowdfunding rip off. - Q: What is happening with this company - No news for last 5 years ?????????????? - Q: https://www.benchmarkspacesystems.com/news/post/press-release-benchmark-space-systems-wins-second-air-force-research-lab-contract-to-test-new-thrusters-on-non-toxic-ascent-fuel Congrats on this, saw Jake mentioned specifically! How is this related to Tesseract IP? - Q: Is Tesseract still in existence? Updates? - A: Hi Dean, yes the IP has been licensed to Benchmark Space and Tesseract has stock warrants that will be converted to cash for our shareholders if Benchmark has a liquidity event (acquisition, IPO, etc). There are multiple propulsion systems in space using Tesseract IP and we have gotten some royalties. I'll send a 2023 update soon. Have you looked at previous updates? Thanks for your investment and we are doing what we can to reach a profitable outcome. - Q: Is there any updates on the stocks moving forward if and when a full merger happen with bench mark - Q: Any updates? - Q: hi Tesseract/Wefunder team, any updates for the investor. Last update was communicated in November 2019. Maybe it's time for another ? Kinda in the dark right now. Cheers - Q: Hi I'm an investor for the tesseract program but I don't see my name listed as one of the investors... - Q: I don’t have any stock certificate or any proofs that proves my investment - Q: When do I get a stock certificate - Q: Thanks for your thoughtful answers. Let me know if/where I am wrong: There are benefits to electric systems, including the fact that they are non-toxic, lighter, and potentially more cost effective. But the huge trade off is that electric systems take far longer to get into space. Because of this there has been a push for the invention of more powerful yet cost effective electric systems, which no one has figured out. If you succeed in solving the toxicity problems and also create lower cost with a liquid propulsion system you create the best of both worlds, which would be a game changer. Ion and fusion thrusters do not solve the time-to-orbit problem. Is all that right? - Q: If Early Bird Discount is still available, I'm interested. Please let me know - A: Hi Kishore - We have a pending investment that did push us over the $250K threshold for Early Bird, so I'm afraid that is over. - Q: 250k already crossed? Don't see Early Bird discount? - A: Hi Kishore - As per our answer to your other question, Early Bird threshold has been crossed with a pending investment.