SpaceX was recording a record in this Tuesday, August 18 with its Falcon 9 rocket, but we learn from Reuters that the firm would also have achieved the most colossal fundraising of its entire existence.
According to official documents published by the American body for regulation and control of financial markets (SEC), SpaceX has just completed a funding round in the amount of 1.9 billion dollars. A historic fundraising, bringing its capitalization to 46 billion dollars, well beyond what was previously estimated.
For the moment, the financing operation remains private and it is not possible to know the different investors. On the other hand, it is announced by Bloomberg that Fidelity Investments would be among the most important of the cycle.
An IPO, with a spin-off of Starlink?
To achieve such a large amount, SpaceX built on its latest round of successes that officially established the company in the commercial space industry. First with its first manned flight to the ISS, with its Crew Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket, and then with the acceleration of its deployment of the Starlink network.
Should we expect Elon Musk’s firm to prepare for an IPO? At this point, things are starting to get clearer.
On the one hand, SpaceX should not go public, as its CEO has always indicated that the company will wait until its first flights to Mars are successful before seeking to carry out such an operation.
On the other hand, a split could take place for the activity of Starlink, and the capital of this new company would be in contention to claim to become public. Last February, SpaceX’s COO Gwynne Shotwell was transparent about this. “Starlink is the kind of company we can take on the stock market”, she declared to Bloomberg.
Its 12,000 satellites planned – although very controversial – form a major lever for the company. Starlink would thus target a considerable market, made up of both traditional operators, but also new customers in rural areas and emerging markets. It is expected, by the end of 2020, that 1,500 of them will be deployed in low Earth orbit.
