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Pre-Launch · Filing seed · Series A — Q4 2026

Capital stages and traction gates

The operational roadmap investors hold us to.

Capital stages, regulatory filings, and traction milestones from seed close to general availability, sequenced over 36 months. Each gate is binary, measurable, and shareable — every quarterly investor update reports progress against the same calendar.
Planning horizon
2026 – 2029
Capital path
Seed → Series A → Series B
Total capital target
$15M seed · $60M Series A
Review cadence
Quarterly · IR updates

Capital summary

Three stages of capital · one mission.

Wavestar's capital plan is sized to the 24-month v1 window and the Series A runway that follows. The seed takes us from formation to production clearing across all five resource classes; the Series A funds the institutional member cohort and the move from ATS operation to DCO status.
Seed round
$0M

Q2 2026 target close. Lead plus strategic partners.

Series A
$0M

Q4 2028 target. Gated on SEC ATS-N live and first member cohort.

Series B (indicative)
$0M

Indicative 2030. Scales to CFTC DCO and international expansion.

Months · seed to v1
0

Production clearing across downlink, ISL, propellant, hosted-payload, and spectrum.

Milestones

The traction calendar.

Each milestone is a binary gate. Slippage is reported at the next quarterly investor update with an explanation and a revised target date. Acceleration is equally reportable.
  1. Q2 2026In progress

    Seed close · $15M

    Lead investor plus strategic partners. Term sheet, diligence, and closing. Proceeds fund the 24-month v1 programme: engineering build, regulatory filings, first design-partner cohort.
  2. Q4 2026Planned

    FinCEN MSB registration

    Form 107 filed. Money Services Business status confirmed. Enables lawful custody of member fiat balances for settlement. Formal AML program certified and the first BSA officer designated.
  3. Q1 2027Planned

    Terminal alpha

    First design-partner operators onboarded to the Terminal. Full operator system-of-record for fleet state, contracts, and registry entries. Initial cohort of three to five operators.
  4. Q3 2027Planned

    ORCH first cleared trade

    First live match cleared through the ORCH engine — downlink minute contract as the initial product. Novation handshake, observer-signed delivery attestation, and USDC atomic settlement. SOC 2 Type II report issued in the same quarter.
  5. Q2 2028Planned

    SEC ATS-N effective

    Form ATS-N filed, reviewed, and operational. Alternative Trading System status permits the matching and crossing of security-like instruments consistent with the SEC framework. First institutional member cohort onboards against ATS-N disclosures.
  6. Q4 2028Planned

    Series A · $60M

    Target close. Lead plus follow-on from seed. Proceeds fund CFTC DCO filing, international expansion (UK, Singapore), and the ramp to general availability. Gated on SEC ATS-N live and the first five institutional members.
  7. Q1 2029Planned

    CFTC DCO registration

    Form 7-R filed. Derivatives Clearing Organization status confirmed. Enables clearing of forwards and other derivatives across the resource complex, with CCP novation and a Cover-2 default fund.
  8. H2 2029Planned

    General availability

    All five resource classes live in production. Permissionless onboarding for qualified members. First rulebook annual amendment cycle. First annual transparency report published under Reg SCI-aligned disclosure.

Use of proceeds

How the seed is being spent.

  • 01

    Engineering · ORCH, Terminal, Market, Attest

    Clearing engine (Rust), operator system of record (TS/Next.js), marketplace UI, and the federated attestation network. Core engineering headcount through Series A is capped at twenty-four.
  • 02

    Regulatory · FinCEN · SEC · CFTC

    Outside counsel for FinCEN MSB filing, SEC ATS-N filing, and CFTC DCO preparation. Multi-firm engagement covering federal regulators and state money-transmitter reciprocity.
  • 03

    Compliance · AML · BSA · sanctions · SOC 2

    Chief Compliance Officer hire, the AML and sanctions screening stack, the BSA team, and the SOC 2 Type II / ISO 27001 roadmap.
  • 04

    Member onboarding and design-partner programme

    First operator cohort. Zero-fee through first $10M cleared. Seat on the rulebook working group. Hardware integration support for ground-station and fleet telemetry.
  • 05

    Infrastructure · hosting · cryptography · anchoring

    Multi-cloud hosting across US primary and EU secondary regions. Hardware-security modules for key management. On-chain anchoring fees for Ethereum and Bitcoin transparency anchors.
  • 06

    Governance · OIF formation

    Legal and operational work to form the Orbital Interchange Foundation as the 501(c)(6) protocol-governance body at approximately month eighteen.

Risk register

Material risks investors should weigh.

  • 01

    Regulatory-pace risk

    Multi-track filing (FinCEN, SEC, CFTC, SEF/DCM) is parallel by design. Slippage in any track delays the corresponding product line. Mitigated by early pre-filing engagement and multi-firm counsel.
  • 02

    First-counterparty risk

    A clearing house has no product without members. The first five institutional members are a binary success condition. Mitigated by the design-partner cohort, fee waivers, and the rulebook working-group seat.
  • 03

    Technology-execution risk

    The ORCH engine must hit 12k TPS sustained and 99.995% uptime before institutional onboarding. Mitigated by Rust-native implementation, deterministic state machines, and a staged load-testing roadmap.
  • 04

    Resource-origination risk

    Every cleared resource must have deliverable underlying inventory. Mitigated by design-partner contracts with ground-station, fleet, ISAM, and hosted-payload providers signed before the corresponding contract goes live.
  • 05

    Attestation-network risk

    Attest must reach a threshold quorum of independent observers for every settlement. Mitigated by a cross-jurisdictional observer programme signed at the seed stage, with geographic and institutional diversity.
  • 06

    Macro and capital-markets risk

    Series A is targeted for Q4 2028. A closed capital-markets window delays the CFTC DCO gate. Mitigated by a minimum 18-month runway at Series A close and a bridge-convertible facility term sheet in hand.

Prospective investor

Request the data room.

The data room contains model, cap table, regulatory filings, rulebook drafts, counsel list, and the full member pipeline. Access is granted under NDA and gated to qualified investors.

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