Elon Musk's space transport company SpaceX is reportedly planning to raise around $250 million in a new funding round. If the company does successfully raise the funds, it could push its total market valuation to around $36 billion.
Since its establishment, SpaceX has managed to raise a significant amount of money from investors. In 2019, the space transport company managed to raise a total of $1.33 billion through three separate funding rounds. Since it started, the company has raised more than $3 billion from investors.
The company's need for such massive capital becomes apparent given the scale of its ambitious goals. Similar to Elon Musk's other companies, SpaceX ambitions are literally out of this world to the point of being far-fetched. Musk previously stated that he plans to have the company transport millions of people to his planned Mars colony over the next few decades.
In the meantime, SpaceX is generating a lot of revenue from its current operations. The company recently received a contract from NASA for the use of its Crew Dragon spacecraft for its commercial crew program. The contract included a $3.1 billion award from the agency. SpaceX has also managed to gain a lot of customers for its space launches. Last year, the company managed to make 13 successful launches, bringing different payloads for its customers into orbit.
While it continues to ferry satellites and other items into orbit, SpaceX is moving forward with the development of more advanced space technologies. The company is currently in the process of developing its next-generation spacecraft called the "Starship." The vehicle is meant to eventually replace SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. Unlike the two rockets, Starship will be designed to be fully reusable instead of partly reusable.
According to SpaceX, its next-generation Starship rocket will provide significant cost savings and advantages that will boost the company's future earnings. However, while it is still in development, SpaceX will require a massive amount of capital to make sure that the rocket is reliable and actually flies without issues.
Musk explained in a previous interview that a lot of capital will be required to build prototypes of the Starship. SpaceX apparently plans to build multiple versions of the spacecraft, gradually changing its design and technologies for each new version. The money required to build each version and to develop new technologies to address any challenges along the way will be massive, which is why it will make sense for SpaceX to seek additional funds in any way it can.
