Central Texas has another unicorn: The commercial space startup Firefly Aerospace Inc., which hopes to soon launch its first rocket into space.
The Cedar Park-based company said May 4 it raised a $75 million series A round that valued it at more than $1 billion. The oversubscribed round was led by DADA Holdings, with additional investment from Astera Institute, Canon Ball LLC, Reuben Brothers Limited, SMS Capital Investment LLC, Raven One Ventures, The XBTO Ventures and others.
Jed McCaleb of Astera Institute will join Firefly’s board of directors.
And Firefly said that it aims to raise $300 million more in late 2021, once it can launch its flagship Alpha rocket in the near future.
"Firefly is excited to welcome our new partners, prior to our inaugural launch of Alpha," CEO Tom Markusic said in a statement. "Post launch we will embark on a second, larger round, that will enable Firefly to execute fully its business plan of new spacecraft and launch vehicle development. With our recent major contract wins and the arrival of new, strong financial partners, 2021 is proving to be a breakout year for Firefly."
Firefly said investor interest was high in the funding round. To compensate for "overwhelming demand" to get into the series A round, Firefly backer California-based Noosphere Ventures sold roughly $100 million of its stake in Firefly in secondary transactions to series A and other investors. Noosphere, led by Max Polyakov, remains the largest investor in Firefly, having helped rescue it from bankruptcy in 2017. Polyakov told Austin Business Journal in March 2020 he had invested $120 million into the company during the previous three years.
"Noosphere is proud to have supported the early development of Firefly Aerospace and the Alpha launch vehicle," Polyakov said in a statement. "As Firefly transitions into commercial service and embarks on additional ambitious programs such as lunar payload delivery, the time is right to expand the Firefly investor base."
Recent contract wins for Firefly include $93.3 million with NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services to deliver 10 science payloads to moon in 2023.
Firefly, which shook up its board in February, did not provide a date for its first Alpha launch but said it "is completing preparations for the inaugural launch ... from Vandenberg Space Force Base" in California.
Firefly wants to become a major player in small- to medium-launch rocket launches, with payloads of up to 10,000 kilograms. Earlier this year it employed roughly 330 people between its headquarters in Cedar Park and a testing site in the Central Texas town of Briggs, as well as at offices in Cape Canaveral, Florida; Vandenberg; Washington, D.C.; and Ukraine.
Commercial space flight is ascending to new heights. SpaceX recently won a $2.9 billion contract to fly astronauts to the moon. And companies such as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are moving closer to launching space tourism.
