TAMPA, Fla. — The Maldives is looking to raise $50 million for a space agency fund that aims to be the first of its kind for an island nation, targeting sovereign infrastructure and support for other developing states facing climate and security challenges. The Maldives Space Fund (MSF), based in the United Arab Emirates for regulatory oversight, was announced Oct. 1 during the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney. Close to $5 million in pre-commitments has already been secured from investors including family offices in the Middle East, according to Rajeeshwaran Moorthy, a space venture capitalist advising the Maldives’ three-year-old space agency on the fund. “We’re signaling to the world that the Maldives has aggressive ambitions for space,” Moorthy told SpaceNews. He is also an advisor for Axiom Space, the Texas-based commercial space station developer, and co-leads efforts at Australia’s Swinburne University Space Venture Fund as an investment advisor.