{"id":18271,"date":"2018-11-15T21:29:46","date_gmt":"2018-11-15T13:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/rocket-lab-reports-140m-in-fresh-funding-cementing-space-unicorn-status\/"},"modified":"2018-11-15T21:29:46","modified_gmt":"2018-11-15T13:29:46","slug":"rocket-lab-reports-140m-in-fresh-funding-cementing-space-unicorn-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/rocket-lab-reports-140m-in-fresh-funding-cementing-space-unicorn-status\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket Lab reports $140M in fresh funding, cementing space unicorn status"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_462622\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-462622\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-462622\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/181115-rocketlab2-630x420.jpg\" alt=\"Electron rockets\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/181115-rocketlab2-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/181115-rocketlab2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/181115-rocketlab2.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-462622\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Electron rockets are under construction at Rocket Lab\u2019s production facility in New Zealand. (Rocket Lab Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Fresh on the heels of a successful satellite launch, Rocket Lab today announced that it has received $140 million in new investment.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket Lab said the Series E financing round was led by Future Fund and closed last month, well in advance of last weekend\u2019s \u201cIt\u2019s Business Time\u201d mission. The Electron rocket launch from the California-based startup\u2019s pad on New Zealand\u2019s Mahia Peninsula put six satellites in orbit and tested an experimental drag sail for small satellites.<\/p>\n<p>The new round brings Rocket Lab\u2019s total funding to $288 million and puts the company\u2019s valuation well past a billion dollars, extending its status as a startup \u201cunicorn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This month\u2019s launch was only the second successful orbital mission for Rocket Lab, which was founded by New Zealand-born CEO Peter Beck in 2006. The Electron\u2019s maiden launch in May 2017 made it to space but didn\u2019t make it to orbit. This January, the second test launch successfully deployed satellites in orbit, setting the stage for a fully commercial follow-up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has been a big year for Rocket Lab, with two successful missions to orbit and another about to roll out to the pad, but it\u2019s even more significant for the global small satellite industry that now has a fully commercial, dedicated ride to space,\u201d Beck said in a news release. \u201cThis funding also enables the continued aggressive scale-up of Electron production to support our targeted weekly flight rate. It will also see us build additional launch pads and begin work on three major new R&amp;D programs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Exclusive look inside Rocket Lab's factory!\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-VGZ8DGkiyc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Last month, Rocket Lab opened a rocket production facility in New Zealand and announced plans to build a second launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA\u2019s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.<\/p>\n<p>Future Fund had invested in Rocket Lab previously. Other existing investors contributing to the Series E round include Greenspring Associates, Khosla Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, DCVC (Data Collective), Promus Ventures and K1W1. A new investor, ACC, also contributed to the round.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were fortunate enough to follow Rocket Lab\u2019s journey from their initial engine program to the first launch, the factory scale-up and now the start of commercial operations, all of which happened in record time,\u201d said Sven Strohband, who is a partner and chief technology officer at Khosla Ventures as well as a member of Rocket Lab\u2019s board.<\/p>\n<p>Although Rocket Lab\u2019s status as a space unicorn is notable, it\u2019s not the space industry\u2019s most highly valued company in private hands. SpaceX, founded by tech billionaire Elon Musk, is thought to be valued at $23 billion or more. Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos is the founder and sole owner of his Blue Origin space venture, which makes it virtually impossible to estimate valuation. However, Bezos has acknowledged that he\u2019s investing $1 billion a year in Blue Origin.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Correction for 5:35 p.m. PT Nov. 15:<\/strong> The headline on a previous version of this report listed an incorrect amount for the funding round ($150 million instead of the actual $140 million).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Electron rockets are under construction at Rocket Lab\u2019s production facility in New Zealand. (Rocket Lab Photo) Fresh on the heels of a successful satellite launch, Rocket Lab today announced that it has received $140 million in new investment. Rocket Lab said the Series E financing round was led by Future Fund and closed last month, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1596,544,271],"class_list":["post-18271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-new-zealand","tag-rocket-lab","tag-unicorns"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18271"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}