An RS1 missile booster undergoes acceptance tests.
ABL Space
Rocket builder ABL Space completed a $ 170 million funding round, the company announced Thursday, making it the latest private space company to hit the unicorn’s valuation point.
ABL raised the money from T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Management, as well as a third party limited liability investment company and existing investors, for a valuation of $ 1.3 billion.
“We have always taken pride in our capital efficiency,” Harry O’Hanley, CEO of ABL, told CNBC, noting that the company has spent “well under” $ 50 million to date.
“If you compare us to other companies that spend hundreds of millions of dollars developing launch vehicles, you should see how fundamental our underlying approach must be to achieve that,” added O’Hanley.
The company had raised $ 49 million in venture capital to date, with investors including Venrock, New Science Ventures, Lynett Capital and Lockheed Martin Ventures. ABL had also announced nearly $ 45 million in contracts from the Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX, with the company saying on Thursday that it now has contracts from ten “different clients,” from a mix of commercial and government clients.
“We believe the global economy has significant long-term growth potential,” Jason Adams, portfolio manager of T. Rowe Price’s Global Industrials Fund, said in a statement. “We believe ABL has a management team, technology package and product strategy to enable long-term competitive advantages.”
The first stage of the company’s RS1 missile after the completion of welding.
ABL Space
ABL’s RS1 rocket is 28 feet long and is designed to launch a whopping 1,350 kilograms (or nearly 1.5 tons) of payload into low Earth orbit – at a cost of $ 12 million per launch. That puts RS1 in the middle of the commercial launch market, between Rocket Lab’s smaller Electron for $ 7 million and SpaceX’s heavy Falcon 9 for $ 62 million.
It also pits ABL against several other companies developing “medium-lift” missiles. Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit recently reached orbit, while ABL, alongside Relativity Space and Firefly Aerospace, is aiming for the companies’ first launches later this year.
In addition to ABL’s economic approach to the missile development process, the company also praises the efficiency of its GS0 ground system. They’re essentially the barebones of a launch facility – the erector, fuel, electricity, control center, and more – all packaged in a pair of standard size shipping containers.
One of the sea containers with the GS0 infrastructure for the deployable launch system.
ABL Space
O’Hanley told CNBC in January that ABL’s missile program was already “fully funded” on its first mission, and on Thursday said the additional $ 170 million in capital “will give us a chance to gear up for scaling. of the launch cadence to meet all requirements. demand we see in 2022 and beyond. “
“It will also allow us to carefully explore more opportunities, both in space technology and in other areas,” said O’Hanley.
ABL’s new valuation also makes it the latest aerospace company to cross the unicorn mark of a valuation of more than $ 1 billion. The company is now one of the most valuable in the growing space industry, led by SpaceX with a valuation of $ 74 billion and followed by a variety of companies that have announced SPAC deals in the past six months.
Dan Piemont, president and CFO of ABL, shared his views on the company’s new status.
“We see our appreciation not so much as an achievement but as a serious responsibility to deliver value,” Piemont told CNBC. “We have never optimized for valuation and we have kept most of our achievements private. We know we have much to prove. We are committed to building a sustainable business with the best people, customers and investors in the world. world. “
“Hopefully this round shows that something special is happening under the hood here at ABL. If you want to know more about what that is, get in touch with us,” added Piemont.