Bagaveev Corporation
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
The Bagaveev Corporation was a nanosatellite launcher startup based in Half Moon Bay, California. Founded in 2013 by Nadir Bagaveyev, a US Army veteran turned propulsion engineer, the company designed, built and tested 3D-printed aerospike rocket engines intended to power both stages of a 3-ton, 35-foot two-stage rocket that would deliver 10 to 12 kilogram nanosatellites to low Earth orbit and sun-synchronous orbit. Backed by Boost accelerator and later Y Combinator (Winter 2015) with Tim Draper as an adviser, the company raised about $700,000 in total. Its engines were real and were static-fired in the Mojave Desert, but the rocket was never built and the company went quiet around 2020.
02 / Bagaveev Corporation FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Bagaveev failed primarily because it was orders of magnitude too underfunded for what it attempted to build. The company raised only about $700,000 across its lifetime - roughly a hundred times less than what orbital rocket programs cost - yet set out to develop an orbital launch vehicle. Its engines were real and were static-fired in the Mojave Desert, but the rocket never materialized and an orbital launch promised for 2019 never happened. Unable to raise anything close to the capital a launch program required, the company went quiet around 2020 without announcing a shutdown, and industry trackers later recorded it as out of business in 2023.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded and backed by Boost
Nadir Bagaveyev founded the Bagaveev Corporation in California in November 2013, backed by Adam Draper's Boost accelerator with Tim Draper as an adviser, to build 3D-printed aerospike engines for nanosatellite launches.
- Y Combinator and seed funding
The company went through Y Combinator's Winter 2015 class and raised its last disclosed funding, $120,000, in March 2015, bringing disclosed funding to about $700,000 in total.
- Promised launch never happened
The company's first announced orbital launch, targeted for 2019, did not happen; the engines had been static-fired in the Mojave Desert but the rocket itself was never built.
- Recorded as out of business
With no activity since around 2020 and no announced shutdown, PitchBook recorded the company as out of business in October 2023 and Y Combinator lists it as inactive.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
The company raised about $700,000 in disclosed funding across its lifetime: an early-stage round of $535,000 in April 2014 and $120,000 in March 2015, after backing from Boost accelerator and Y Combinator.
- 02
No follow-on funding materialized for the orbital program; the company went quiet around 2020 without a public shutdown announcement.
- 03
Industry trackers recorded the company as out of business in October 2023 (PitchBook) and Y Combinator lists it as inactive; no loss figure with a stated subject, period and accounting basis has been publicly documented.