Magdrive and the EIC Accelerator: Plasma Thrusters in Orbit

Magdrive, founded in 2019 by two Imperial College London engineers, builds electric thrusters for satellites that use solid metal as propellant. Its thrusters charge internal energy stores and deliver "high-voltage pulses to detonate metal propellant into high energy plasma", which pushes the spacecraft. The company is based at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire.

Magdrive won a "grant only" award in the EIC Accelerator cut-off of October 2021 for Magdrive-Nano, "next generation electric plasma propulsion for the new space age". We found no Magdrive project in CORDIS, the EU's project database, so the amount and scope cannot be checked. In June 2025 two of its Rogue thrusters launched on a D-Orbit spacecraft, and in February 2026 Magdrive announced they had completed commissioning and firing tests in orbit.

Where Magdrive Stands Today

In 2026 Magdrive opened DEEP Lab, a propulsion test laboratory at Harwell with vacuum testing, cleanroom assembly and plasma diagnostics, supported by the UK Space Agency's Space Clusters Infrastructure Fund and open to other companies. It has signed memoranda with Space Solar on in-orbit energy infrastructure and with Perpetual Atomics on nuclear plasma propulsion, and announced a collaboration with Orbit Fab. Companies House shows share allotments in November 2024 and early 2025, accounts filed for 2025 and a new charge registered in September 2026.

The Technology: Metal Turned Into Plasma

Magdrive delivered the first flight models of its Rogue system to D-Orbit in Milan in January 2025, in a demonstration "funded by the European Space Agency's ScaleUp programme". On D-Orbit's ION spacecraft in a 612 km sun-synchronous orbit, the two thrusters generated plasma and returned telemetry on capacitor voltages, temperatures and injector performance. The company has not published thrust or efficiency figures from the flight.

What the EIC Project Promised, and What the Record Shows

The award promised next-generation electric plasma propulsion. The in-orbit demonstration shows Magdrive's technology works in space, but it was funded by ESA, and without a CORDIS record there is no public account of what the EIC's money paid for, or how much it was.

1. Flight-ready thrustersDeliveredDelivered to D-Orbit.
2. In-orbit demonstrationDeliveredESA-funded, 2025.
3. Published performanceNot shownNo thrust data.
4. EIC project accountabilityNot shownNo CORDIS record.

What Has Happened Since the Award

The Money

On 25 February 2025 Magdrive announced a $10.5 million seed round led by the European venture firm Redalpine, with Founders Fund, Balerion, Alumni Ventures, Outsized Ventures, 7percent and Entrepreneur First, to fund research, a UK manufacturing facility and a US office. It said it had also received "over $10 million" of government funding from the UK government, the UK Space Agency and ESA. Companies House records share allotments between November 2024 and February 2025. The value of the EIC award and whether it was paid are not public.

Why Europe Should Care

Magdrive is a British company that won an EU innovation award and flew its first thrusters on a spacecraft from Milan-based D-Orbit with ESA money. Its record shows progress; the EIC's contribution to that progress is invisible in the EU's own database.

The Verdict

Magdrive has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on company statements and UK company filings, linked throughout.