From Space to Scale: Rethinking growth in a multi-vertical world

By Juliette Otterburn-Hall, Value Squared

The space industry is no longer a niche reserved for governments and a handful of prime contractors. Driven by private investment, commercial innovation and rapid technological progress, Space has become one of the most dynamic and high-potential sectors globally. Yet for many organisations, the real question is no longer whether to engage with space – but how to do so in a way that genuinely drives growth and long-term value.

For those already operating in the sector, scaling beyond traditional industry multiples can prove challenging. For those looking in from the outside, breaking into what remains a relatively insular ecosystem is equally difficult. In both cases, the constraint is often the same: treating space as a standalone industry rather than as part of a broader strategic model.

A more powerful approach is to position space as one vertical within a wider, multi-vertical business strategy. The companies struggling to scale in space – and the ones hesitating to enter it – are often making the same mistake: they’re treating it as an end destination rather than a strategic lever. Space, on its own, is still a relatively closed ecosystem. It can be difficult to break into, slow to scale within and – if you stay too contained – limiting in terms of valuation.

Rather than just asking “How do we build a space business?”, the question we think is more helpful is “How does space make our overall business more valuable?” The most successful companies today don’t rely on a single sector to drive growth. They build capabilities that travel across industries, markets and use cases. In that model, space becomes something different. In this context, space becomes more than an opportunity – it becomes a lever for value creation. It sharpens technologies. It stress-tests operating models. It opens up high-value applications that can be translated elsewhere. And when it’s connected to other verticals, it accelerates both innovation and scale.

This shift unlocks tangible advantages. Businesses can diversify risk, open up new revenue streams, and accelerate innovation across sectors. Proven models can be adapted and scaled, while exposure to multiple markets increases agility and responsiveness. These characteristics are increasingly recognised by investors, who reward businesses that demonstrate both scalability and resilience.

Operating across verticals – especially when one of them is as complex as space – requires a different level of discipline. You need to be clear on what’s core and transferable versus what’s context-specific, you need operating models that can stretch without breaking and very importantly, you need stakeholder alignment – because without it, multi-vertical quickly becomes multi-fragmented. Execution is where many strategies succeed or fail.

Moving from concept to delivery demands clarity on where value is truly created, alignment across leadership, and a structured approach to scaling. We’re seeing more leadership teams challenge themselves to ask harder questions: Where is value actually created in our business? What can scale and what can’t? And what does our organisation need to look like in order to deliver on those value and scale? These conversations are becoming a critical part of how businesses prepare for growth and investment for those within the Space sector, and those looking to enter it.

The companies that will increase valuation and lead the market in the next phase won’t be the ones that confine themselves to space. They’ll be the ones that connect it – into a broader, more scalable story about value creation.

This is the focus of a new series of our Value Squared workshops that we kicked off at SpaceComm, designed to support companies and investors navigating this transition – whether integrating space into an existing portfolio or scaling beyond it. The opportunity in space is undeniable, but its real impact is realised when it is connected to a broader vision for growth.

The organisations that will lead in this next phase are those that think beyond industry boundaries, build capabilities that travel, and use space not as an endpoint – but as a catalyst.