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🚀 SpaceX Crosses $100 Billion Valuation

🚀 SpaceX Crosses $100 Billion Valuation

October 08, 2021

The Space Scoop

Week Ending 10.08.2021

Hello from New York and a warm welcome to our new readers! We have an action packed week to cover, including: Big News from SpaceX, 4 Funding Rounds, 1 Acquisition and Space NFTs.

Market Max-Q 📈

SpaceX Crosses $100B With Latest Secondary Share Sale

According to CNBC, Elon Musk's SpaceX valuation has officially crossed $100 billion following a secondary share sale by insiders, which was announced this week. According to people familiar with the deal, the agreement is with new and existing investors to sell up to $755M in stock from company insiders at $560 per share. The new valuation of exactly $100.3B is +33% higher from $74B valuation ($419.99 per share) funding round in February. Now a unicorn 100 times over, SpaceX is the second most valuable private company in the world, per CB Insights, behind only Bytedance. This news follows insight from Setter Capital that SpaceX "has more than double the institutional interest of second place fintech company Stripe in a recent survey as the "Most Sought After Private Companies in the Secondary Market."

Bank of America Initiates ‘Underperform’ Coverage on Astra

On Monday morning, $BAC analyst Ronald Epstein began coverage of Astra ($ASTR) with a bearish rating and $9 per share price target. He sees limited upside for the stock based on the "development and commercialization risks ahead for Astra's plans in the small satellite launch market." He continues, stating "while Astra plans to target the growing and niche small satellite launch market, we believe the lack of proven performance will continue to weigh on the share price. Furthermore, on a relative basis, the company remains several paces behind its closest competitors, Rocket Lab ($RKLB) and Virgin Orbit ($NGCA to $VORB)." It is also noted that despite Astra management's lofty ambitions, the company has "still yet to reach orbit and has registered only one partially successful mission." Astra finished the day -7.9% lower and continues to underperform since its Nasdaq listing.

Voyager Space Acquires Valley Tech Systems

The move highlights the company's intent to further expand its defense capabilities and apply such technologies to support their existing complementary capabilities and address customer demand across the defense and commercial sectors. "VTS is a leader in controllable solid propulsion and ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) technologies and can help to solve key pain points for space missions and create a safer and more affordable space ecosystem" said Dylan Taylor, CEO of Voyager. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. This is Voyager's fifth acquisition since incorporation in 2019 and continues their plan to become a publicly traded, vertically integrated holding company. Prior acquisitions include: Altius Space Systems, Pioneer Astronautics, The Launch Company and Nanoracks. Voyager previously stated it is eyeing a public market debut in early 2022 with the help of J.P. Morgan.

World View Eyes 2024 To Revive Stratospheric Space Tourism

The company's Explorer Space Capsule can carry eight passengers and crew to altitudes of ~100K feet on flights lasting 6 to 12 hours. Each seat costs $50K and offers “flexible financing options.” This beats Virgin Galactic's ($SPCE) $450K price tag, though CEO Ryan Hartman stated that he expects their flights "to complement Blue Origin and Virgin's suborbital launches as an additional way to experience viewing Earth. We don't consider ourselves head-to-head competitors.” The company is currently finalizing the design of the capsule and will then seek a flight license from the FAA. He said the company is fully funded for “this stage” of development. He anticipates ~100 flights per year at any given location, given wind conditions. This isn't World View's first go to market. The company attempted this idea nearly a decade ago, but soon shifted its attention to uncrewed “stratollites” balloons to carry imaging and communications payloads into the stratosphere for weeks at a time.

The HyperSpace Challenge Accelerator Announces 24 Finalists

HyperSpace is a business accelerator created in 2018 by the Air Force Research Laboratory and CNM Ingenuity to accelerate collaboration among startups, university teams and government space agencies to shift space innovation into hyperdrive. The accelerator announced 13 startups and 11 university team finalists in the 2021 cohort, including: Astroport Space Technologies, Atomionics, G-SPACE, Knight Aerospace, Lunar Outpost, Neutron Star Systems, O Analytics, Obruta Space Solutions, Quaternion Consulting, SCOUT, TurnRock Labs, Varda Space Industries, Vegamx, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, New Mexico Tech, SFluor, Stevens Institute of Technology, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Texas State University, University of Texas at El Paso, The Pennsylvania State University, University of Cincinnati, University of Colorado Colorado Springs and Utah State University. The finalists will participate in a showcase event competing for $100K in prizes at the 4th Annual Summit on December 2, 2021.

In Other News 🛰️

Rendered.ai Raises $6M Seed Round

(TechCrunch)

The company is a 'platform-as-a-service' for creating synthetic data for the satellite, medical, robotics and automotive industries. The round was led by Space Capital, with participation from Tectonic Ventures, Congruent Ventures, Union Labs and Uncorrelated Ventures.

Eutelsat Increases OneWeb Stake

(MartimeNetwork)

The company (ENXTPA: $ETL) exercised a call option on the latest funding round to increase its stake in the global communications company from 17.6% to 22.9% for $165M.

WarpSpace Raises Series A Funding

(BusinessWire)

A University of Tsukuba spin-out startup announced the closing of Series A funding by Japanese VCs, including SBI Investment and Mizuho Capital. The total funding of the company has now exceeded $9M since founding in 2016.

Satellogic Announces Expanded Collaboration With AWS

(Company)

$CFV is leveraging $AMZN Web Services Ground Station to quickly and cost-efficiently scale their satellite data acquisition processes and deliver data directly to AWS for processing and analysis so that customers can make decisions faster.

Muon Space Raises $10M Seed Round

(BusinessWire)

The company is building a software-defined remote sensing constellation platform to deliver critical climate and Earth systems data. Funding was led by Costanoa Ventures, with participation from Space Capital, Congruent VC, Ubiquity Ventures, South Park Commons and Climactic VC.

Kuva Space Raises $4.9M Seed Round

(SpaceNews)

With its new capital, Kuva will look to establish a constellation of six-unit cubesats to gather imagery in the 400 to 1,000 nanometer band. Participants in the round include: Voima Ventures, Nordic FoodTech Venture Capital, the European Space Agency InCubed program and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

Quick Links 🔗

Former General Counsel of the US DoD Joins Momentus ($MNTS) as Chief Legal Officer and Corporate SecretarySpace Forge Co-Founder Speaks to ITV About the Possibilities of Space ManufacturingEnduroSat and Exolaunch Announce Launch Agreements for SpaceX Falcon 9 Rideshare MissionsUAE Government Appoints Yahsat ($YAHSAT:UH) to Assess Two New SatellitesHySpecIQ Selects BridgeComm for Satellite Constellation IntegrationAccion Systems CEO Interview with SatMagazineBlackSky ($BKSY) Appoints Susan Gordon to Board of DirectorsMinerva Space Technologies Announces $150M Investment To Launch a Marketplace for Space Domain Infrastructure and Non-Fungible Digital AssetsSpire ($SPIR) Chosen to Aid in Maritime Collision Avoidance ResearchYouTuber HyperChange Describes His Recent Investment Opportunity Into SpaceXRocket Lab ($RKLB) Could Become the Space Force’s Favorite Rocket LauncherAirbus (ENXT: $AIR), the Mexican Space Agency and Dereum Labs to Collaborate on Lunar Resources Extraction TechnologyExotrail Is Reorganizing Management To Support a New Phase of ExpansionHow to Trade Virgin Galactic ($SPCE) Right NowStarlinks' New Head of India Eyes Cooperation With Others in Space, Not Competition Bootstrappers Interview with Ben Kellie, Founder of The Launch CompanyThe Rate of Space Deals May Slow Down in the Next YearSpaceX Veteran Hans Koenigsmann To Join Mynaric Supervisory Board and Stoke Space Advisory BoardThe FAA Completes Environmental Assessment of Relativity Space's Terran 1 Launch PlansRocket Lab ($RKLB) Has Been Selected To Launch NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System on ElectronSeven Seven Six VC Makes Appearance on CNBC Discussing Why They Chose To Invest in Stoke SpaceThe Head of Lockheed Martin ($LMT) Space Is Set To Retire

🚀 SpaceX Crosses $100 Billion Valuation