Relativity Space Closes $140 Million Series C Funding
Round Led by Bond and Tribe Capital
October 01, 2019
Relativity Space, the company
building the world’s first autonomous rocket factory and
launch services for satellites, has closed a $140
million Series C funding round led by Bond and Tribe
Capital.
With this $140 million funding
round, Relativity is fully funded to become the first
company in the world to launch an entirely 3D printed
rocket to orbit and enter commercial service in early
2021. The Series C round includes participation by new
investors Lee Fixel, Michael Ovitz, Spencer Rascoff,
Republic Labs, and Jared Leto, with participation from
current investors Playground Global, Y Combinator,
Social Capital, and Mark Cuban.
“Relativity was founded with the
long term vision of 3D printing the first rocket made on
Mars and expanding the possibilities for human
experience in our lifetime. With the close of our Series
C funding, we are now one step closer to that vision by
being fully funded to launch Terran 1 to orbit as the
world’s first entirely 3D printed rocket,” said Tim
Ellis, Cofounder and CEO of Relativity Space. “Bond and
Tribe are unrivaled partners in leading this funding
round, and we are excited to build this important future
together with our entire team.”
Relativity is the only aerospace
company to reinvent both the rocket and the entire
manufacturing value chain. Disrupting 60 years of
aerospace, the company is developing the Stargate
factory, the first and only aerospace factory to
integrate machine learning, software, and robotics with
metal 3D printing technology, enabling Relativity to
build and launch rockets in days instead of years. Built
from raw material to launch-ready in less than 60 days
with a payload capacity up to 1250 kg, Relativity’s
Terran 1 rocket is now upgraded to a 3-meter payload
fairing with 2-times larger volume than before, making
it the most competitive in its class and providing
unique flexibility to satellite customers. Both the
Stargate factory and Terran 1 are completely designed,
built, and operated in the United States.
Since closing a Series B
fundraising round in March 2018, Relativity has achieved
key milestones across product development, government
partnerships, and business momentum and is on track to
commence commercial service in 2021. The company
advanced its groundbreaking Stargate factory to expand
print production capacity 4x and developed several
larger next-generation Stargate 3D printers with
optimized controls and software, improving scalability
and adaptability to evolving customer needs. Among the
technology milestones achieved are building fully
printed first and second stage structures, printing and
assembling a second stage, successful and intentional
burst testing of Stargate printed stage structures to
demonstrate ability to hold pressure, completion of
first turbopump tests, completion of more than 200
engine hotfire tests at NASA Stennis Space Center,
completion of the avionics architecture and hardware
testing, and completion of the Terran 1 vehicle system
design and coupled loads analysis.
“We are excited to complete the
development of Terran 1, providing an entirely new value
chain for our customers. As we build Terran 1 we will
continue to expand the Stargate factory, achieving
another milestone towards our long term vision,“ said
Jordan Noone, Cofounder and CTO of Relativity Space.
Relativity Space also deepened its
pioneering partnership with the U.S. Government.
Relativity became the first venture-backed company to
secure a launch site Right of Entry at Cape Canaveral
Launch Complex-16 from the U.S. Air Force, secured a
20-year exclusive-use Commercial Space Launch Act (CSLA)
agreement for five NASA test sites including E3 and E4
and a 20-year exclusive use lease for a 220,000 square
feet factory at NASA Stennis Space Center, and became
the only venture-backed company on the National Space
Council User’s Advisory Group advising the U.S. White
House. Relativity expects to secure a polar and Sun
Synchronous Orbit (SSO) capable launch site by the end
of 2019.
Relativity also accelerated growth
of its Terran 1 customer manifest including leading
global satellite operators, commercial companies, and
government payloads. The company announced customer
contracts with Telesat, the renowned global satellite
operator, to support their LEO constellation; mu Space,
the innovative Thai satellite and space technology
company, to launch their first LEO satellite;
Spaceflight Industries, the leading satellite rideshare
and mission management provider, to launch Spaceflight’s
dedicated smallsat rideshares; and Momentus, the
provider of in-space shuttle services, to launch
Momentus’ small and medium satellite customers to GEO.
“We're thrilled to invest behind
Relativity's world class team, and join a broader group
of investors, customers, and government partners that
share our enthusiasm for the company's bold vision to
reimagine rocket development," said Noah Knauf, a
Cofounder and General Partner at Bond. "We believe the
Stargate factory is a template for the future of
aerospace manufacturing and provides Relativity's
commercial customers, and eventually humanity, a faster,
more reliable, and lower cost way to shuttle important
resources from earth to outer space."
To scale operations for first
flight, Relativity increased infrastructure from 10,000
square feet to over 280,000 square feet of operations,
production, testing, and launch facilities, and is on
track to reach over 480,000 square feet of
infrastructure in 2019. Since last year, the company
increased team size 8x from 14 to 110 employees, and
hired a senior executive team of renowned experts and
seasoned leaders from top private space and technology
companies, including Distinguished Engineer Tim Buzza,
VP of Government Business Development Josh Brost, VP of
Launch Vehicle Development David Giger, VP of Operations
Tobias Duschl, VP of Avionics and Software Brandon
Pearce, and General Counsel Laura Lariu.
"Accelerating speed in the design,
manufacture and delivery of rockets will become the
Moore’s Law of space travel and exploration. By
optimizing manufacturing for speed, Relativity will
increase the frequency of launches in service of growing
commercial and consumer needs in space. Just as doubling
microprocessor speeds enabled the personal computing
revolution, Relativity will push forward an entire
ecosystem of hardware and software systems to take
humanity beyond Earth’s orbit,” said Arjun Sethi,
Cofounder and General Partner at Tribe Capital.
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