Two of the most controversial industries for startups todays are also experiencing some of the most significant venture capital investment growth, according to a new study by Redpoint Ventures.

The study, which was produced by Redpoint partner Tomasz Tunguz and which was the subject of a story on Quartz, shows that investment in Bitcoin startups experienced a compound annual growth rate of 151 percent from 2012 to mid-2015. Space travel grew 141 percent over the same time period.

Yet Bitcoin has attracted its fair share of controversy in recent years, most prominently for facilitating illicit sales of drugs and other contraband items via the now shuttered online bazaar called Silk Road. And municipalities, including New York City, are trying to figure out ways to regulate Bitcoin payments without throttling innovation.

Space travel, traditionally the domain of the federal government, is now being privatized by the likes of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson. Their efforts have been troubled in recent months. Last October, a Virgin Galactic test flight crashed, killing one of its pilots. Virgin Galactic, Branson's brainchild, had a goal of taking ordinary consumers to space by 2015. In June, an unmanned SpaceX rocket carrying tens of millions of dollars worth of NASA equipment to International Space Station, exploded due to technical failures in the rocket. PayPal and Tesla founder Elon Musk also founded SpaceX.

More earthbound businesses also experienced pretty stellar growth, such as photo sharing startups, which saw venture capital investment increase 150 percent. Shutterfly, an Inc. 5000 company, and Flickr are just two examples of such companies. Physical storage startups, which include moving and self-storage warehouses, also experienced increased investment of 145 percent over the period. And Lending services, of which OnDeck and Lending Club are examples, saw compound annual growth of 109 percent.

Yet as a percentage of total venture capital dollars invested, these categories are still in their infancy. Bitcoin startups took in just 0.18 percent of investment dollars, while space travel notched 0.99 percent.

Startups landing in negative growth territory from 2012 to mid 2015 include dating sites and apps, email products and services companies and semiconductors. Those categories decreased by nine percent, 22 percent, and 31 percent respectively.