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Firefly Aerospace has raised a massive late - point funding round as it educate for the launch of its lunar lander afterward this year and the first mission of its Elytra spacecraft next year .
The $ 175 million Series D , which set Firefly ’s valuation at over $ 2 billion , apparently close in less than two months in a show of religion in the company ’s new CEO — aerospace executive director Jason Kim , who was installed in the emplacement on October 1 . Kimhad antecedently ledBoeing ’s satellite maker Millennium Space Systems .
Firefly also plans to practice some of the new capital to move to full pace production of its Alpha rocket salad and to quicken growing of the Medium Launch Vehicle it ’s conscientious objector - rise with Northrop Grumman . Firefly has launched Alpha five times since September 2021 , though only three of these successfully placed the payloads in orbit . The companyset a new recordwith the third Alpha mission in September 2023 ; called Victus Nox , the commission demonstrated rapid launching potentiality , with Firefly launch the Alpha rocket just 27 hours after receiving the gullible sparkle from the U.S. Space Force . ( The company has been tapped for a 2nd “ speedy response ” mission to launch next year . )
The novel capital will help Firefly meet the rest of the mission on the manifest , which include an accord with L3Harris for up to 20 launches from 2027 , and one with Lockheed Martin for 15 entrust launches through 2029 .
The late raise was lead by a raw investor , RPM Ventures , with participation from existing investors and extra new investors GiantLeap Capital and Human Element . This later stage deal seems to be a bit of an exception for RPM , which says on its website that around 75 % of its investiture are in Series A stage companies .
The beat fend out as one of the few sizable late - stage deal in the space sector this year , which has largely been dominated by activity in the seed and Series A stages , grant to a recent report from U.K.-based house Seraphim Space . This is in stark direct contrast to the stop between 2019 and 2021 , during which more than half of all speculation financing was allocated to Series D+ companies .
