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I was impressed to see how little venture capital SpaceX has taken over the years. Of course there was a lot of funding from Musk (is this the seed funding in '
by washedup 12y ago
I was impressed to see how little venture capital SpaceX has taken over the years. Of course there was a lot of funding from Musk (is this the seed funding in '06?), but very impressed to see them build out very successful and complicated products with only a few hundred million before 2015. Looks like they are now confident enough in their process and goals to begin accepting lot's of venture capital.
It also seems to me that SpaceX should not be in this list. Being a company that focuses on physical technologies, it is almost a different beast altogether than the rest of the software-based group. Hard to compare it's company and funding structure to the others when it involves a much more complicated logistical chain, development period, and roll out.
EDIT: SpaceX has received almost $1 billion in funding from NASA over the years. It's unclear to me, however, how this funding works. Is it an up-front payment for future launches, or purely award money?
- mycroft-holmes 12y agoSerious question: do they count government money as VC money? Haven't they received a considerable amount of money through NASA?
- washedup 12y agoI forgot about that entirely. SpaceX has certainly received lots of contractual funding. Almost $1 billion from NASA for various contractual obligations, but I am not sure if they were up-front payments for future launches or "award money" for meeting certain criteria. If anyone knows, I would really like to learn how that NASA funding works.
- mcherm 12y agoThere is, however, a huge difference between money received from NASA as contracts for services and money received from investors to fund the company.
- jrdnmadrid 12y agoGreat point.
- Negitivefrags 12y agoIsn't that just their income?
- bhauer 12y agoNASA isn't investing in SpaceX, though, right? They're just paying SpaceX for services rendered.
- kiba 12y agoNASA isn't pouring money in SpaceX in search of profit but rather seeking to enable the commercialization of space as an investment for the US and perhaps for humanity as a whole.
- rhino369 12y agoIt's not technically investment but it sort of is. The government pays for development of a product that might not even work. But it's par for the course in that industry.