The leading investor is Andreessen Horowitz, a private American venture capital firm that invests in seed, start-ups, early, mid-stage, growth, and late-stage. Earlier, a16z already invested in SpaceX, along with such companies as Founders Fund, Sequoia, Gigafund, and others.
Elon Musk‘s aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company SpaceX is running a new $750 million funding round that will bring its valuation to $137 billion. According to those familiar with the matter, the leading investor is Andreessen Horowitz (also called a16z), a private American venture capital firm that invests in seed, start-ups, early, mid-stage, growth, and late-stage. Earlier, a16z already invested in SpaceX, along with such companies as Founders Fund, Sequoia, Gigafund, and others. Notably, Andreessen Horowitz has also co-invested in Musk’s Twitter buyout deal worth $44 billion.
Neither SpaceX nor Andreessen Horowitz commented on the news.
In December 2022, Bloomberg reported on SpaceX’s offering to sell insider shares for $77, a price that would bring its valuation to about $140 billion.
In general, last year was a success for SpaceX in terms of fundraising. In May 2022, SpaceX ran an equity funding round where it raised as much as $1.7 billion and was valued at $127 billion. We also reported at that time that SpaceX was positioned to be the most valued US startup with a valuation of more than $125 billion.
Further, in July 2022, SpaceX raised another $250 million and reached a value of $127 billion.
SpaceX in 2022: Achievements
SpaceX is working with other private US companies on making space accessible to a wider international community. It is currently developing a constellation of thousands of Starlink satellites that provide broadband internet coverage to remote and rural locations on Earth. Notably, Starlink has already exceeded 1 million subscribers. In May 2022, it became a lifeline to users in Ukraine who suffered infrastructure disruptions after Russia’s invasion. As we reported at that time, the shipment of the satellites was immediate, less than 48 hours after announcing it.
In August 2022, SpaceX signed a new deal with semi-private airline company JSX to provide Starlink satellite internet to the latter company’s fleet of planes. The partnership has become a milestone for both companies as JSX became the first airline operator to integrate Starlink’s high-speed internet broadband for its users.
The company is also closely working with NASA to explore opportunities for commercial space flights. In September 2022, NASA and SpaceX signed an unfunded Space Act Agreement to study the feasibility of a SpaceX and Polaris Program idea to boost the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope into a higher orbit with the Dragon spacecraft, at no cost to the government.
Currently, NASA is considering SpaceX as an emergency return option for the ISS crew. NASA and Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, are investigating the cause of a punctured coolant line on an external radiator of Russia’s Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. It was supposed to return its crew to Earth in 2023, but the capsule sprang a leak. Now, NASA is looking for alternative rides for the crew.
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