Austrian propulsion manufacturer ENPULSION has agreed to acquire the entire share capital of UK chemical propulsion specialist Lift Me Off. Terms were not disclosed, and completion is subject to clearance under the National Security and Investment Act 2021.
The buyer is a scaled European component supplier. ENPULSION was founded in 2016 by Dr Alexander Reissner as AMR Propulsions Innovations, spun out of FOTEC, the research subsidiary of Austria's University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt, to commercialise field-emission electric propulsion.
It now claims more than 320 propulsion systems operating in orbit and hardware on 15 of the 17 SpaceX Transporter missions. The company is headquartered at Vienna Airport with operations across Europe.
The acquisition follows a €22.5m growth round announced in March, led by Nordwind Growth, raised to scale production capacity, advance next-generation mobility systems and push further into the United States. That balance sheet is now being deployed on M&A.
Lift Me Off is a considerably smaller proposition. Founded in 2018 by Michel Poucet and Marcos Perez, the Reading-based company designs chemical and cold gas propulsion systems, propellant tanks and pointing mechanisms, and has participated in multiple European Space Agency programmes.
ENPULSION is taking 100% of the share capital. Financial terms were not disclosed, so the consideration, the split between cash and paper, and any earn-out are unknown. Poucet and Perez will support the transition to preserve continuity across live programmes and customer relationships.
The regulatory condition is the notable feature of the deal structure. Because the target sits in space propulsion, a sector explicitly captured by the UK's mandatory notification regime, the transaction requires approval from the UK Government under the National Security and Investment Act 2021 before it can complete.
The strategic logic is portfolio assembly. ENPULSION sells electric propulsion; Lift Me Off brings chemical and cold gas systems plus tank design. Together they allow hybrid configurations for missions that need flexible delta-V across several phases, folded into ENPULSION's Cortex integration layer.
"LMO brings institutional design credentials, a talented team, and a complementary technology base in chemical propulsion and tank systems," said Reissner, chief executive of ENPULSION.
There is a geographic calculation too. ENPULSION points to Lift Me Off's position in the UK space cluster, near ESA's European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications and the Harwell Space Cluster, as a route into national programmes and closer customer proximity.
For the UK sector, it is another British space engineering business passing into continental ownership — this time with an ESA track record attached, and with the Government holding a veto over whether the transfer happens at all.
Original source: EU-Startups — https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/08/after-e22-5-million-raise-viennas-enpulsion-to-acquire-british-space-propulsion-company-lift-me-off/
