Timothy A.
Clary/Getty Images European space tech startups have raised more than €2 billion (about $2.3 billion) in VC funding this year, almost double last year’s total, and SpaceX’s IPO could help pour more fuel on that fire
Last week, SpaceX made its Nasdaq debut, closing out its first day of trading at a market cap of over $2 trillion and becoming the sixth-largest public company in the US. More than just a record-breaking IPO, the listing is expected to lead to a significant increase in VC appetite for space tech globally. “Private money is going to want to invest in the next SpaceX,” Thomas Oehl, GP at German deep tech VC firm Vsquared Ventures, said. “There are great potential winners in the US, but Europe also has global leaders. All space companies are global from the get-go.” Much of that new capital is expected to flow to Europe, where defense spending, sovereignty concerns and a maturing startup ecosystem have already primed the market.
According to Seraphim Space CEO Mark Boggett, the IPO will also help attract capital from a broader range of sources, including generalist VCs, sovereign wealth funds and PE firms. With SpaceX’s success comes a greater appreciation for space as an investment theme, moving it from a niche technology to a mainstream opportunity that institutional investors can’t afford to ignore. Additionally, the thousands of SpaceX employees who have become millionaires, many of whom will be European, and the company’s exiting VC backers will be poised to reinvest their proceeds back into the sector that generated their wealth.