FINANCIAL HISTORY
• Seed Round: $100M by March 1, 2006 (Elon Musk)
• Series A - D: $145.4M between August, 2008 and
December, 2012 (Investors include DFJ, Founders Fund)
• Series E: $1 Billion on January 20, 2015 by Google, DFJ
and others
• Current valuation is around $10 Billion. IPO expected
around 2020.
THE STORY
• Founded in June 2002 by Elon Musk
• Goal is to reduce space travel costs
enough to enable colonization of
Mars
• Primary method of achieving this is
reusable rockets!
• Current revenue comes from
NASA and commercial projects
WHAT’S HOT?
• Reusable rockets
• Reduces cost by 10-fold
• Trials were successful;
first live attempt was
not
SECRETTO SUCCESS
• Elon Musk.
• Speed: SpaceX has been first
to market in many areas
• Opportunist:Take advantage
of an unsaturated market and
do it early (2002 for SpaceX)
• Also, Elon Musk.
INTERNET IN SPACE
• Unfettered and low-cost Internet access for the masses
• Constellation of 700 light-weight satellites
• Musk wants to do it now so that it’s ready in time for
Mars
• Google invested in a $1 billion round
• SpaceX is also opening a Seattle office for this
COMPETITION
• Arianespace (French)
• Boeing
• Lockheed Martin
• SpaceX vs. United Launch Alliance (not
afraid to fight)
• SpaceX has been responding well to
competition due to lower costs and
faster turn-around
MY PREDICTION
• SpaceX will persevere
• They’re futurists and understand
the need for cost reduction in
order to make long-term space
exploration a reality
• We’ll be on Mars by 2025-2030
and SpaceX will play an
important role in that