SpaceX raises $1 billion in funding from Google, Fidelity

January 21, 2015 07:19 am | Updated 07:19 am IST

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), founded by Elon Musk, said it has raised about $1 billion in a financing round with two new investors, Google Inc and Fidelity.

Google and Fidelity will collectively own just under 10 percent of SpaceX, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

SpaceX said the funding will help it continue research in space transport, reusability, and satellite manufacturing.

Google and Fidelity join existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Founders Fund, Valor Equity Partners and Capricorn.

Google has already a presence in the aerospace sector following a few high-profile acquisitions last year, including that of satellite company, Skybox Imaging for $500 million in June.

The announcement from SpaceX comes on the same day that Planet Labs, a San Francisco-based private satellite operator founded by former NASA scientists, said it raised $95 million to help build its business of selling satellite images and data to customers.

SpaceX backer Draper Fisher Jurvetson also participated in Planet Labs' latest equity round.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.