SpaceX’s Valuation Is Expected To Climb To $24 Billion

Source: Recode, Theodore Schleifer @teddyschleifer
Photo: Joe Raedle, Getty

At the new mark, SpaceX would be the third-highest-valued private company in the United States.

SpaceX has signaled it will be valued at about $24 billion as it continues to raise mountains of money to support its cash-intensive rocket business.

The company disclosed in a Delaware filing last week that it was authorizing a new $500 million round of financing, its Series I, and selling equity at $169 a share. That comes out to a $23.7 billion valuation if all the shares are issued, according to Lagniappe Labs, the creator of the Prime Unicorn Index, which obtained the filing.

Other data services came up with different valuations for SpaceX, including an estimate from Equidate of $27 billion after the new financing round.

It was last valued at about $21 billion in November, according to PitchBook.

Elon Musk’s company did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the new investors, but it rarely discloses fundraising information outside of required filings. Musk keeps his investors exceedingly close, and new capital generally comes from existing investors as opposed to people new to the company.

Prominent backers include DFJ, Founders Fund, Google and Fidelity. The company and its investors were also reportedly planning to spend another $500 million to buy out existing investors, though that wouldn’t be disclosed in a Delaware filing because new shares wouldn’t be created.

Those secondary sales are important because it’s unclear if SpaceX ever intends to go public and give investors a way to make money off the company’s rise in value. The business, though, requires incredible amounts of money to finance its launches and to meet ambitions — like city-to-city rocket travel, which its president said this week would be doable “within a decade.”

SpaceX, at the new valuation, would be the third-highest-valued private company in the United States. Only Uber and Airbnb are worth more.

https://www.recode.net/2018/4/12/17229542/spacex-rocket-space-valuation-elon-musk-fundraising