She wanted to go to the stars, then built an $800m space tech firm
Flavia Tata Nardini always wanted to be an astronaut. Now her space-tech firm is on its way to joining the ranks of unicorns – start-ups worth over $1 billion – but she almost ran out of cash, twice.
Fleet Space Technologies founder Flavia Tata Nardini still hopes to go to space herself one day. Roy VanDerVegt
When Flavia Tata Nardini was a little girl holidaying on a mountain outside Rome, she loved the night of San Lorenzo in the middle of summer. Italian legend says the shower of shooting stars that appears around August 10 evokes the fires that martyred St Lawrence. In reality, they come from the annual meteor shower created by the orbit of the Swift-Tuttle comet.
“I was a space geek,” Tata Nardini says. “It was the most beautiful thing, and it completely inspired me.”
Yolanda RedrupRich List editorYolanda Redrup is the editor of the AFR Rich List. She previously reported on technology, healthcare and Street Talk. Connect with Yolanda on Twitter. Email Yolanda at yolanda.redrup@afr.com
