Cedar Park-based Firefly Aerospace Inc. this week said it has landed a $75 million series B funding round led by Florida-based private equity firm AE Industrial Partners LP.
The deal marks a new chapter for the space rocket and launch services company. Months ago, Ukrainian investor Max Polyakov said he had to sell his firm's stake in the company after national security concerns were raised by the Committee on Foreign Investment. Polyakov is the investor who largely rescued Firefly from bankruptcy a couple of years ago.
AE Industrial Partners has now acquired the stake from Polyakov's investment firm, Noosphere Ventures LP. Firefly did not disclose an actual valuation, but said the new funding round was completed at a higher valuation than when it raised $75 million in 2021 at a valuation of $1 billion-plus.
Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show that AE, through special purpose acquisition vehicles, will have a controlling stake in the company through its purchase of Noonsphere's shares and its equity investment.
Firefly — which launched its first rocket last September, although it blew up mid-flight — plans to launch its second rocket in this year's Q2. The rocket is already completed and has gone through several testing stages.
In addition to preparing for a second launch of its Alpha rocket, Firefly is developing other ways to carry small to medium-sized payloads to space. The company is developing a larger rocket, called Beta, as well as a space utility vehicle and a lunar lander.
Firefly last year secured an incentives agreement from the city of Cedar Park to expand its headquarters in that city. The company is in line to receive $4.3 million in benefits as long as it purchases a building in the Scottsdale Crossing Technology Center and creates 682 jobs by Nov. 30, 2030.
On the funding deal, Crowell & Moring LLP and Hogan Lovells LLP were legal advisers to Firefly. DLA Piper LLP and Kirkland & Ellis LLP were legal advisers and Jefferies LLC was financial adviser to Noosphere Ventures, while Covington & Burling LLP and Ernst & Young advised AE Industrial Partners.
