Firefly Aerospace has raised an enormous late-stage funding spherical forward because it prepares for the launch of its lunar lander later this yr and the primary mission of its Elytra spacecraft subsequent yr.
The $175 million Sequence D, which set Firefly’s valuation at over $2 billion, apparently closed in lower than two months in a present of religion within the firm’s new CEO — aerospace government Jason Kim, who was put in within the place on October 1. Kim had beforehand led Boeing’s satellite tv for pc maker Millennium Area Techniques.
Firefly additionally plans to make use of a number of the new capital to maneuver to full charge manufacturing of its Alpha rocket and to speed up improvement of the Medium Launch Car it’s co-developing with Northrop Grumman. Firefly has launched Alpha 5 instances since September 2021, although solely three of those efficiently positioned the payloads in orbit. The corporate set a brand new file with the third Alpha mission in September 2023; known as Victus Nox, the mission demonstrated fast launch capabilities, with Firefly launching the Alpha rocket simply 27 hours after receiving the inexperienced gentle from the U.S. Area Pressure. (The corporate has been tapped for a second “fast response” mission to launch subsequent yr.)
The brand new capital will assist Firefly meet the remainder of the missions on the manifest, which embody an settlement with L3Harris for as much as 20 launches from 2027, and one with Lockheed Martin for 15 dedicated launches via 2029.
The most recent elevate was led by a brand new investor, RPM Ventures, with participation from present buyers and extra new buyers GiantLeap Capital and Human Component. This later stage deal appears to be a little bit of an exception for RPM, which says on its web site that round 75% of its investments are in Sequence A stage corporations.
The spherical stands out as one of many few sizable late-stage offers within the area sector this yr, which has largely been dominated by exercise within the seed and Sequence A phases, in response to a latest report from UK-based agency Seraphim Area. That is in stark distinction to the interval between 2019-2021, throughout which greater than half of all enterprise funding was allotted to Sequence D+ corporations.
