Inspired by “Top Gun,” Axiom Space CFO Mike Lungariello always wanted to be a pilot, but near-sightedness robbed him of that dream. So he got himself into aerospace through a different pathway. Instead of controlling an aircraft, he’d control the finances of companies that bought, leased and sold aircraft.
Lungariello worked in companies leasing aircraft for airlines, but he wanted a role in a vision-driven company, which he didn’t think he would find in commercial aviation.
That led him to a meeting with billionaire Kam Ghaffarian, a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Houston-based companies Intuitive Machines (Nasdaq: LUNR) and Axiom Space. After spending time at another Ghaffarian-founded company, Maryland-based Quantum Space, Lungariello was appointed CFO of Axiom Space in November.
“The experience financing large operating assets translates well into Axiom,” Lungariello said. “Axiom is building the world’s first commercial space station, and it's ultimately a home and an operating asset in space.”
Lungariello sat down with the Houston Business Journal to discuss Axiom Space’s growth after closing one of the biggest funding rounds in Houston last year. The company also just completed its third commercial mission, which splashed down on Feb. 9.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you go into the parallels of commercial aviation and space financing you’ve observed?
Ultimately, Axiom Space is building an asset that creates revenue streams over time, but to do that, a company in its advanced gross stages or mid-life gross stages — however you want to consider us post our [Series C] round — needs to raise a significant amount of debt and equity capital. That’s how you buy aircraft, that’s how you finance airports, that’s how you finance aerospace assets in general.
We are looking at a diverse variety of investors and to build Axiom’s credit and debt profile. We are looking beyond low Earth orbit as well, but that starts with the first commercial space station, and the ability to develop that business requires an array of investors.
How do Axiom’s current commercial missions tie into that investor base?
I’ll highlight that I was in the background of that [$350 million Series C round], having been working for Quantum Space but not having joined Axiom officially at that time. The two lead investors, Aljazira Capital and Boryung Ltd., were very strategic. Our Ax-2 mission had Saudi astronauts on the crew, and the country has been very vocal about its space presence, so that helped facilitate investment there.
As for Boryung, they’re a pharmaceutical company, and you will hear us talk about in-space services for manufacturing with pharmaceutical applications and related research and development. That whole synergy and circular economy — or relating their interests to our offerings — is something we expect to continue.
Axiom recently opened the first phase of its Houston Spaceport facility. How does that play into the investor-growth part of the company?
This is a project that isn’t being produced by governments of the world, by NASA, so having manufacturing infrastructure on the ground definitely helps with the investor outreach. I would also say that being in Houston, near the Johnson Space Center, is a boost. Having the facilities and the location there and saying that Axiom Station is going to be the first spacecraft built in Houston, and being able to take people to these facilities and showing them, that absolutely resonates with investors. It’s not just a company that’s trying to change the world — we have internal assembly in a centralized location, and they like to see that.
